cess. National monuments can also be created by Congress under their own enabling statutes, rather than the Antiquities Act. National monuments can be administered by Federal agencies other than NPS. The Presidential proclamation or Congressionally-enacted statute creating the national monument typically indicates which Federal agency will administer it.
What constitutes Camp Nelson National Monument?
Camp Nelson National Monument protects and interprets three discontiguous locations in Jessamine County, consisting of approximately 380-acres of the core historic Civil War-era Camp Nelson site, roughly 20 miles southwest of Lexington, Kentucky. These locations include the main encampment area and sites associated with the Home for Colored Refugees.
Many Union supply depots were situated in or near large urban areas such as Louisville, Chattanooga, New Orleans, and Chicago, and their associated landscape and remaining archeological resources have been destroyed by post-Civil War development. Because of its rural location and grass roots preservation efforts within Jessamine County, Camp Nelson is considered one of the best-preserved Civil War-era depots, hospitals, recruiting centers, and refugee camp sites in the nation.
The national monument is comprised of pastures, open fields, and wood lots similar to the site’s pre- and post-war appearance. Camp Nelson’s well-preserved landscape includes numerous features from the Civil War era; they include earthen fortifications, entrenchments, building foundations, historic road remnants, and springs. The Oliver Perry House/“White House” is the only surviving extant structure associated with Camp Nelson’s Civil War history. This 1855 Greek Revival house was commandeered by the Union army for use as the Quartermaster and Commissary officers’ quarters and eventually returned to the Perry family after the war.
Operated in partnership with Jessamine County, a visitor center featuring museum exhibits on the history of Camp Nelson as well as a reconstructed army barracks buildin