Camp Dick Robinson - Camp Dick Robinson

Camp Dick Robinson

On August 5, 1861, Union men in Kentucky elected seventy-six men to the House of Representatives versus the twenty-four men in the States' Rights movement. In the Senate, the Unionists elected twenty-seven men versus eleven states' rights men. That meant that out of 138 seats, there were now 103 (75 percent of the state legislature) who supported the Union. The following day, U. S. Congressman Charles A. Wickliffe informed his colleagues in the House that he had learned Kentucky “is wholly for the Union.” Plans called for the recruits to encamp after the election, and Col. Speed S. Fry started a detachment of the Second Regiment Kentucky Volunteer Infantry (later the Fourth) toward Camp Dick Robinson. At dusk, the First Regiment Kentucky Cavalry welcomed them with a salute from a mountain howitzer.

The official dedication took place on August 10, and the following day the editor of the Louisville Journal, George D. Prentice, declared that intentions to supply these Union volunteers with arms was as "equipped for mischief as if it had been contrived . . . by the Devil himself." The "Covington Journal" gleefully reported that other Old Whigs "are making efforts to arrest the movement, and break up the camps." The perplexed Nelson wrote to Sen. John J. Crittenden that he did not understand why "a camp of loyal . . . Kentuckians” assembled under the flag of the Union . . . upon their native soil should be cause of apprehension." On August 13, Nelson received additional instructions to those of July 1, 1861, that called for him to also "accept and muster in wherever offered regiments for service in Tennessee and Kentucky in such numbers and of such arms as you may consider necessary for the best interests of the country." That same morning thirteen carloads of food, military clothing, and arms went forward from Covington. On August 22, 1861, Nelson distributed the long-delayed weapons and equipment to the troops at Camp Dick Robinson.

Secretary Chase advised Garrett Davis the president would not "disavow, directly or by implication, the action of Lieutenant Nelson under the sanction of his own authority, given at the urgent instance of some of the wisest & best Union men in Ky. & Tenn." On August 26, Governor Beriah Magoffin received a reply from President Lincoln that stated Camp Dick Robinson was “established at the request of many Kentuckians.” He said they were an “indigenous force” and therefore would “respectively decline to remove” them.

At the end of August, Nelson had 3,200 troops, 7,000 arms, and 6 pieces of artillery. There were 1,000 troops in Col. Robert K. Byrd's First Regiment Tennessee Volunteer Infantry and Col. James P. T. Carter's Second Regiment of Tennessee Volunteer Infantry. Col. Thomas E. Bramlette's, Third Regiment Kentucky Volunteer Infantry had about 600 men. Col. Speed S. Fry's Fourth Regiment Kentucky Volunteer Infantry had about 600 men; and Col. Theophilus T. Garrard's Seventh Regiment Kentucky Volunteer Infantry about 600 men. The First Regiment Kentucky Volunteer Cavalry under Col. Frank Wolford had about 400 troops and Capt. John M. Hewitt, Battery B, First Kentucky Artillery about 20 men. At Knoxville, Confederate Brig. Gen. Felix K. Zollicoffer was informed that Nelson was being reinforced by another “400 or 500 per day.”

Many believed the Confederates were about to make a two-column advance from Knoxville and Nashville that was to join with secessionists in Kentucky to "seize Frankfort, occupy Louisville, and carry the state out of the Union." That threat led Garrett Davis to say Camp Dick Robinson "must not be removed, even if it be the cause of civil war." Indiana Governor Oliver P. Morton feared "the conspiracy to precipitate Kentucky into a revolution is complete. . . . If we lose Kentucky now, God help us." On September 3, all pretense of neutrality in Kentucky ended when Confederate troops moved up into western Kentucky and occupied Columbus. The Kentucky General Assembly promptly asked Governor Magoffin to "call out the military force of the State to expel and drive out the invaders."