Nicholasville: Gateway to Camp Nelson
Near Lexington, Kentucky
Nicholasville is the county seat of Jessamine County, and for most of its history it was a quiet agricultural town in the Kentucky Bluegrass. It takes its name from Colonel George Nicholas, a framers of the first Kentucky Constitution. The town was founded in seventeen ninety-eight and grew steadily as a market center for the surrounding hemp and grain farms.
Its most significant chapter came during the Civil War, when Camp Nelson was established just south of town in eighteen sixty-three. The camp became one of the largest Union supply depots in the region and eventually the third-largest recruiting center for United States Colored Troops in the entire war. That history largely faded from public attention for generations.
Today Camp Nelson is a National Monument, and Nicholasville is its nearest town, with the monument visitor center drawing travelers to this corner of Jessamine County that the railroad age and the interstate era both largely bypassed.
