Camp Dick Robinson - Background

Background

With the outbreak of the U. S. Civil War in April 1861, a majority of the citizens in the Mercer, Boyle, Garrard, and Casey counties of Kentucky concluded that secession was "destructive of all permanent government and tending only to political chaos and anarchy." During the third week in May, key leaders obtained 700 muskets from U. S. N. Lt. William Nelson, and they distributed those arms to loyal Home Guard troops. This gave them the ability to stand up to the secessionist State Guard and emboldened Kentuckians to elect nine of ten Union candidates on the single issue of keeping the state in the Union. That vote on June 20 convinced Nelson that the charade of neutrality by both sides had ended. Garrard County Judge Allen A. Burton went to Washington and urged President Lincoln to organize Union men into regiments. This dangerous idea called for audacious leadership and as Burton started to leave the Executive Mansion he encountered Lieutenant Nelson and promptly recommended him for that mission. Nelson met with Tennessee Senator Andrew Johnson, Secretary of Treasury Salmon P. Chase and others to formulate a plan of support for loyalists in East Tennessee. On July 1, 1861, Nelson was detached from the Navy with instructions to organize a force of 10,000 troops. Two weeks later, Nelson spoke with Union leaders from southeastern Kentucky at Lancaster and Crab Orchard and they agreed to raise thirty companies of infantry and five of cavalry. Nelson chose the old inn at Bryant Springs near Crab Orchard as his headquarters. It was conveniently located at the south end of the turnpike in Garrard County at the head of the Wilderness Road and some sixty-five miles north of the Cumberland Gap.