| Camp Nelson National Cemetery infant son, november 21, 1958 a U.S. Highway 27 Roadside Historical Marker reads: In June and July of 1868, after the Civil War, over 2,000 dead were removed from five areas of Kentucky and reburied here. This included 975 bodies from the Battle of Perryville. Also buried are soldiers from the Spanish-American War, World War I and II, Korea, and Vietnam. Expansion of the cemetery was made possible by a ten-acre donation in May of 1975. (reverse)
From World War I until the mid-1930's, 4th of July parades celebrated the patriotism among Lexington's African-American communities. Parades began on Deweese Street and march two miles to Douglass Park. The Parades began to slow after the last war heroes of the Civil War died. These men fought as United States Colored Troops. They enlisted and trained, along with 10,000 other African-Americans, at the largest Union training camp for blacks in the South, Camp Nelson. Because most men flew from slavery to fight in the war, they brought their families and established a refugee camp. After the war, the U.S. government destroyed Camp Nelson in 1866, and the black families settled the neighboring town of Hall, which still exists today, despite what or how the iron marker reads. |