Clara Brown — blog — Judy Meiksin

In my play about Clara Brown, I have a character JORDAN, who is an African American Union soldier, and his 10-year-old daughter GRACE. JORDAN escaped slavery and enlisted in the Union army at Camp Nelson in Kentucky. His wife and daughter followed afterwards, as did many families of the black men who enlisted. The families lived at the camp as refugees, fending for themselves. Camp Nelson was established during the Civil War as a fortified base and supply depot where recruitment and training took place.

When I found out that Camp Nelson had been made into a National Monument adjacent to a National Cemetery where black soldiers have been buried, I made a weekend trip. It was over a 6-hour drive from Pittsburgh to Nicholasville, KY.

Jordan

1. I learned that the Union army, in its hypocrisy, hired enslaved men to help set up Camp Nelson. The men did the labor but pay went to the people who hired them out.

I had wondered how JORDAN and other men learned about the recruitment camp and how to get there. Now I have more backstory for JORDAN: He had been hired out, marked the way there, and told his family and probably other men about the camp and how to get there. It boggles my mind why the men were hired out since, even though Kentucky stayed with the Union, the state allowed slavery. Wouldn’t hiring men out to help the Union army contribute to the demise of slavery? Lots of contradictions in this part of the history.

2. Camp Nelson developed a system to rehabilitate horses so that they could be returned to the war effort. The system included a combination of a special diet, exercise, rest, and grooming. Most of the mules stayed at Camp Nelson.

After the Civil War, JORDAN’s lieutenant colonel wants him to re-enlist and join his cavalry out West. I wondered how JORDAN would transition from foot soldier to the cavalry. While stationed at Camp Nelson, before going into combat, JORDAN’s training included rehabilitating the horses. Because he was excellent at this job as well as combat, his lieutenant colonel wants him to now train and serve in the cavalry.

This area marks the location of the horse stables

3. While Camp Nelson recruited and trained soldiers, some stayed in the camp and others were sent out of camp to contribute to the war effort.

This information helps me understand the mission and culture of the Camp. It helps me understand various tasks for which JORDAN received training & expertise along with combat training.

Actual weapons used during the Civil War, now housed in a museum

4. The cemetery shows evidence that black soldiers during the Civil War served as troops, in the cavalry, and with artillery and heavy artillery, and that they had been promoted as officers.

This information fortifies my belief that JORDAN’s lieutenant colonel—a Caucasian man—respects JORDAN and wants him to re-enlist. I’m accustomed to hearing about the segregated nature of the US military from the Second World War, and how the military consciously held African American soldiers back from combat duty and promotion to the rank of officer. From other various resources (letters) during the Civil War, I understand that many Caucasian Northerners supported the end of slavery but did not believe in equality. The grave markers at the cemetery, however, provides evidence that soldiers and officers who fought side by side, and relied on one another for their lives, respected one another as soldiers and officers, and lobbied the government for equality in terms of military service.

Here lies buried Henry Mitchell, who served in the Calvary and died on March 6, 1865

Here lies William Wall, who served in Heavy Artillery and died on September 3, 1865

Grace

1. The only body of water accessible to the camp was a water spring which only the officers were allowed to use.

Originally, I wrote that GRACE fished and taught the other children of the refugee families how to fish. During the tour of Camp Nelson, I saw there was no body of water on the property except for the spring. Even though the camp was established near the Kentucky River, the river itself was beyond the borders (and safety) of the camp; I was also told that they wouldn’t have been able to reach the river due to the palisades. I’m still unsure what “palisades” means in this case. The Union army built an enormous water pump system to feed water from the river to the camp. Certainly that area was inaccessible for fishing.

This is the site of the water spring that only the officers were allowed to use

2. The refugees set up camp near the bakery.

The tour guide pointed out where the bakery was, and how the refugees set up their home beside it. Based on excavations, it’s known that people in the camp ate cows and pigs. It’s presumed that the refugees also ate this meat and had bread from the bakery. I’m skeptical about what was given willingly by civilians and soldiers who worked in the camp because the head of the camp was known to randomly kick out the refugees. On the other hand, people usually make a “home” where they can get food and water, so maybe the refugees did benefit from the bakery. Before coming to Camp Nelson, GRACE learned from her father how to hunt small game: rabbits, squirrels, raccoons, opossums. She would have continued hunting at the Camp.

Down this way was the site of the bakery where the refugees set up camp

3. The officer in charge of the camp randomly evicted the African American refugees, who then returned afterwards. This continued until another officer leaned on the Union army to accept responsibility of the families of the black soldiers just as it provided for the other soldiers. Even at Camp Nelson, many Caucasian refugees fled to the camp to escape Confederate occupation of Tennessee.

Before visiting Camp Nelson, I knew about this eviction in November of 1864, but I didn’t know he did this several times. I originally wrote in the backstory that GRACE’s mom died in the camp from disease. I thought about the winter eviction, where 100 of the 400 women, children, and old men died of exposure (and malnutrition and disease) and I thought GRACE and her mother would be among them. On the other hand, I learned that it was determined in July 1864 that women who were officially hired by the army to do laundry and cook were not kicked out. I’m still weighing this, but now that I learned about opportunities her mom had to secure their place in the camp, I’m leaning toward that. Would the army have “officially” or “unofficially” hired her soon after she arrived in 1863 even though the army still couldn’t decide how to reckon with “refugees” who were actually “property” and should be returned?

Families of the black soldiers were frequently evicted from Camp Nelson

4. The wives and children of the black soldiers who escaped to Camp Nelson were considered refugees—by the summer of 1865, 3,000 refugees lived in a space where cottages were built for a little over 2300 people. The army then provided 50 tents and the remaining refugees built their own huts with whatever materials they could find.

This helps me get a handle on the refugees’ living situation. I also read information about how black soldiers and their families built their own cabins prior to 1865. Before visiting Camp Nelson, I’ve seen photos of the refugees’ “housing.” Having walked the grounds and read more information on site, I now better understand what is happening in the photos. While I knew of the resiliency of GRACE, these details will help me flesh out what she did to survive and how she led other children to survive.

Photo of the refugee camp where the families of African American Union soldiers lived in Camp Nelson

A close-up of how the walls were built - replica of a cabin built for the refugees

5. A monument has been placed on the property where refugees had been buried. I think their bodies have been moved to the National Cemetery, but I didn’t find the markers.

Here, I learned that all the soldiers were buried together on either end of the cemetery (marked at Graveyard 1), regardless of race. And that their families were buried between them. A number of the bodies have been moved to the National Cemetery adjacent to the camp. I felt humbled to be standing on hallowed ground where a great number of the refugees still were buried. This makes the “stories” very real. I feel like the camp and the cemetery does great honor to the black soldiers and their families who fought for freedom and helped lead this country to build up to its potential.

How a trip changes my script

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