Camp Nelson Confederate Cemetery is a historic cemetery located near Cabot in northern Lonoke County, Arkansas and is the site of Confederate military camp where 1,500 Confederate soldiers died during an epidemic during the fall of 1862.
Camp Nelson is located on Rye Drive, just off Cherry Road, just off Mt. Carmel Road in north Lonoke County about 2 miles east of Cabot.
Camp Nelson was a central staging point in central Arkansas for Confederate troops gathering from Texas and Arkansas. The camp was named for Brigadier General Allison Nelson who was in command of the 10th Texas Infantry Regiment.
During the fall of 1862 an epidemic of measles and typhoid fever ran rampant through the troops congregated there. Approximately 1,500 Arkansas and Texas soldiers died of disease during a two month period including Brigadier General Nelson himself.
Approximately 1,500 of these soldiers were buried in unmarked graves in the surrounding hills.
During the early years of the 20th century Confederate veterans placed markers in honor of the unknown soldiers and erected a 12-foot obelisk to their memory at the site. The cemetery was not properly maintained and was soon overtaken by the forest undergrowth and became just a local curiosity out in the forest.
In the 1980s local residents, including members of the ROTC and local high school students, began a restoration project on their own and returned the cemetery to its original condition.
Camp Nelson Confederate Cemetery is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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—Paula Nelson (b. 1945)
“Well, you Yankees and your holy principle about savin’ the Union. You’re plunderin’ pirates that’s what. Well, you think there’s no Confederate army where you’re goin’. You think our boys are asleep down here. Well, they’ll catch up to you and they’ll cut you to pieces you, you nameless, fatherless scum. I wish I could be there to see it.”
—John Lee Mahin (1902–1984)
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—John Paul II (Karol Wojtyla)