Learn about Civil War History
Camp Nelson National Monument is launching our second annual Winter Lecture Series starting in January 2023!
The special programs feature guest speakers who present on a topic related to the Civil War Era. The presentations will take place on select Saturdays starting at 11:00am. The January event will be held at the national park, while the February and March presentations will be hosted at Jessamine County Public Library. All the programs are free and open to the public.
January 14, 2023 – Brad Asher
Historian and author of The Most Hated Man in Kentucky: The Lost Cause and the Legacy of Union General Stephen Burbridge
January 14th, 2023 ● 11:00am – 12:30pm ● Presentation at Camp Nelson National Monument 6614 Danville Road, Loop 2 ● Nicholasville, KY
In his biography of Union General Stephen G. Burbridge, Brad Asher explores how Burbridge earned his infamous reputation and illuminates how Burbridge—as both a Kentuckian and the local architect of the destruction of slavery—became the scapegoat for white Kentuckians, including many in the Unionist political elite, who were unshakably opposed to emancipation.
February 11, 2023 – Stuart Sanders
Director of Research and Collections at the Kentucky Historical Society
February 11th, 2023 ● 11:00am – 12:30pm ● Presentation at Jessamine County Public Library 600 S. Main Street ● Nicholasville, KY
Union officer and Kentucky native William “Bull” Nelson worked tirelessly during the early stages of the Civil War to keep the Bluegrass State in the Union. Stuart W. Sanders will examine Nelson’s important role during the secession crisis, his arrest of pro-Confederate civilians, early military victories, and how he became a controversial before his murder by a fellow federal officer in September 1862.
February 25, 2023 – Holly Pinheiro, Jr.
Assistant Professor of African American History at Furman University, and author of The Families’ Civil War: Black Soldiers and the Fight for Racial Justice
February 25th, 2023 ● 11:00am – 12:30pm ● Presentation at Jessamine County Public Library 600 S. Main Street ● Nicholasville, KY
In The Families’ Civil War, Holly A. Pinheiro Jr. provides a compelling account of the lives of African American soldiers and their entire families, but also argues that the Civil War was but one engagement in a longer war for racial justice. By 1863 the Civil War provided African American Philadelphians with the ability to expand the theater of war beyond their metropolitan and racially oppressive city into the South to defeat Confederates and end slavery as armed combatants. But the war at home waged by white northerners never ended.
March 25, 2023 – William Marvel
Historian and author of over twenty books, including the definitive biography of General Ambrose Burnside
March 25th, 2023 ● 11:00am – 12:30pm ● Presentation at Jessamine County Public Library 600 S. Main Street ● Nicholasville, KY
Historian Bill Marvel examines General Ambrose E. Burnside’s transfer to the Western Theater, and his tenure as the commander of the Army of the Ohio. Burnside’s career in the West culminated with the launch of the Knoxville Campaign from Camp Nelson in August 1863.
