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Picture of Camp Dick Robinson
Courtesy of Robert M. Baker
In the summer of 1861, Federal authorities gave William "Bull" Nelson, a U.S. Navy Lieutenant,
the authority to establish a recruitment and training camp in order to recruit loyal men for the
United States Army inside the state of Kentucky.
Against the wishes and protests of Beriah Magoffin, Governor of the State of Kentucky,
secessionists, and those in favor of neutrality, Camp Dick Robinson was established on August
6, 1861. The camp was located near Lancaster, just south of Lexington, in Garrard County,
Kentucky on the 3,200 acre estate of Dick Robinson, Esq. Prior to the establishment of Camp
Dick Robinson, the estate was being utilized by a small body of Home Guards that were
assembled to protect the Military stores that were located in a nearby building.
In an order from Brigadier General Anderson, on September 10, 1861, Lieutenant William
Nelson was relieved from his post at Camp Dick Robinson and was replaced by Brigadier
General George H. Thomas, who was ordered to assume command of a brigade being organized
there.
Camp Dick Robinson was the first recruiting and training camp established in the State of
Kentucky, as well as south of the Ohio river. During the Civil War it was utilized by hundreds of
Union soldiers and became a rallying point for the mountaineers of southeastern Kentucky and
eastern Tennessee to join the Union forces. The camp remained in service during the entire
Civil War.
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