Establishment of the Camp Nelson National Monument, 54845-54849 [2018-24027]

Agencies

• Executive Office of the President

[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 211 (Wednesday, October 31, 2018)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 54845-54849]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-24027]



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Vol. 83

Wednesday,

No. 211

October 31, 2018

Part IV





The President





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Proclamation 9811--Establishment of the Camp Nelson National Monument



Proclamation 9812--Honoring the Victims of the Tragedy in Pittsburgh, 
Pennsylvania



Proclamation 9813--To Modify the List of Products Eligible for Duty-
Free Treatment Under the Generalized System of Preferences


                        Presidential Documents 



Federal Register / Vol. 83 , No. 211 / Wednesday, October 31, 2018 / 
Presidential Documents

___________________________________________________________________

Title 3--
The President

[[Page 54845]]

                Proclamation 9811 of October 26, 2018

                
Establishment of the Camp Nelson National 
                Monument

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                Initially established as a Union Army supply depot and 
                hospital, Camp Nelson, located in Jessamine County, 
                Kentucky, was a key site of emancipation for African 
                American soldiers and a refugee camp for their families 
                during the Civil War. Camp Nelson was one of the 
                largest Union Army recruitment centers for African 
                American Union soldiers, then known as United States 
                Colored Troops. During the war, thousands of enslaved 
                African Americans risked their lives escaping to Camp 
                Nelson, out of a deep desire for freedom and the right 
                of self-determination. Today, the site is one of the 
                best-preserved landscapes and archeological sites 
                associated with United States Colored Troops 
                recruitment and the refugee experiences of African 
                American slaves seeking freedom during the Civil War.

                Between 1863 and 1865, Camp Nelson served as a bustling 
                Union Army encampment, hospital, and supply depot. From 
                it, the Union Army dispatched soldiers, horses, and 
                other supplies to support military operations at the 
                Cumberland Gap and the frontlines in Tennessee and 
                Virginia. During this time, enslaved individuals sought 
                to gain their freedom by fleeing to Camp Nelson and 
                other Union military installations in Kentucky. They 
                placed their hope in places like Camp Nelson even 
                though slavery was then legal in Kentucky. The 
                Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Abraham 
                Lincoln on January 1, 1863, to free slaves from 
                bondage, applied only to jurisdictions in which the 
                people were in rebellion against the United States. As 
                a strategically important border State, Kentucky had 
                remained loyal to the Union and, therefore, was not 
                within the proclamation's scope.

                Kentucky was the last State in the Union to allow the 
                enlistment of African American men. Beginning in April 
                of 1864, however, the State allowed free African 
                American men and enslaved men who had the express 
                permission of their owners to enlist. Notwithstanding 
                these limited avenues to enlistment, hundreds of 
                enslaved men risked their lives fleeing slavery and 
                arrived at Camp Nelson during the spring of 1864, with 
                the goal of enlisting in the Union Army in order to 
                gain their freedom and to fight for the freedom of 
                others.

                As the pressure to meet recruitment demands grew, the 
                Union Army was forced to allow all able-bodied men who 
                were of age to join the Army. Kentucky, in particular, 
                was unable to meet its draft quotas with only white 
                soldiers. In the summer after enslaved men began to 
                arrive at Camp Nelson, in June of 1864, more than 500 
                United States Colored Troops were mustered into 
                service. In July, a record 1,370 new African American 
                troops enlisted in the Union Army. On the single 
                biggest recruitment day--July 25, 1864--322 African 
                American men enlisted at Camp Nelson. By the end of the 
                Civil War, more than 23,000 African Americans had 
                joined the Union Army in Kentucky, making it the second 
                largest contributor of United States Colored Troops of 
                any State. More than 10,000 of these troops enlisted or 
                were trained at Camp Nelson. Eight United States 
                Colored Troop regiments were founded at Camp Nelson and 
                five other such regiments were stationed there during 
                the war.

[[Page 54846]]

                Many enslaved men who arrived at Camp Nelson in 1864 
                were accompanied by their families. Although enlisting 
                in the Union Army allowed men to gain their own 
                freedom, it did not have the same effect for their 
                family members, who often remained slaves in the eyes 
                of the law and struggled to support and defend 
                themselves. African Americans at Camp Nelson who did 
                not enlist built refugee encampments. And as United 
                States Colored Troop recruitment continued to climb, so 
                did the population of freedom-seeking refugees at Camp 
                Nelson, despite efforts by the Union Army to break them 
                up and return the enslaved individuals to their owners.

                The Union Army's efforts to remove refugees from Camp 
                Nelson culminated in the tragic, forced expulsion of 
                approximately 400 African American women and children 
                during frigid weather in November of 1864, causing the 
                deaths of 102 refugees. That tragedy brought national 
                attention and public support to the plight of the 
                refugees at Camp Nelson. In response, the Union Army 
                established the Camp Nelson Home for Colored Refugees 
                in January 1865, creating a safe haven for the wives 
                and children of enlisted African American soldiers in 
                Jessamine County, Kentucky. Influenced by these events, 
                the Congress took action in March of 1865 by 
                emancipating the wives and children of any enlisted 
                member of the United States Colored Troops. This law 
                protected the refugees at Camp Nelson. It also provided 
                an additional incentive for African American men to 
                enlist in the Union Army, and caused recruitment to 
                steadily climb through the end of the war. In fact, as 
                of the spring of 1865, Camp Nelson and the refugee home 
                were at their largest, with thousands of new recruits, 
                Union troops, refugees, and civilians working and 
                living in hundreds of structures.

                In 1865, after the end of the war, the Department of 
                War began the process of closing Camp Nelson. It took 
                inventory of existing buildings and equipment and 
                prepared to dismantle and abandon the camp. Many of 
                Camp Nelson's military buildings, all of which were 
                built as temporary structures to be used during 
                wartime, were either sold and moved, or dismantled. 
                Only a few structures, like the Oliver Perry house, 
                which predated the camp's establishment, and the Camp 
                Nelson Home for Colored Refugees, were left intact 
                following the closure.

                The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 
                more commonly referred to as the ``Freedmen's Bureau,'' 
                assumed management of the Camp Nelson Home for Colored 
                Refugees during the post-war transition. Many of the 
                African Americans who lived at Camp Nelson had 
                envisioned that the refugee home would be a center for 
                a thriving post-war African American community. The 
                policy of the Freedmen's Bureau, however, was to remove 
                all refugees from military installations. By October of 
                1865, all of the former Civil War refugee camps in 
                Kentucky and Tennessee had been closed, with the 
                exception of Camp Nelson. While the refugee home 
                officially closed in 1866, approximately 250 
                individuals stayed and sustained a community there, 
                which today is known as Hall, Kentucky. And although no 
                original buildings remain from the Camp Nelson Home for 
                Colored Refugees, the descendants of refugees and 
                soldiers maintain connections to Camp Nelson, and some 
                still live in the Hall community.

                The history of Camp Nelson is now told primarily 
                through archival and military records, as well as rich 
                archeological evidence from the site. The well-
                preserved in situ archeological resources associated 
                with the military installation, recruitment camp, and 
                refugee home provide robust opportunities for 
                researchers to understand the African American 
                experience during the Civil War. The broader Camp 
                Nelson archeological record also provides opportunities 
                for research and scholarship related to military 
                history, race, identity, and gender during the Civil 
                War--a pivotal chapter of the Nation's history. The 
                preserved archeological resources at the sites of Camp 
                Nelson and the Camp Nelson Home for Colored Refugees 
                provide insight into what was once a place where 
                formerly enslaved individuals experienced freedom and 
                self-determination, and struggled to create a sense of 
                home, amidst the chaos of war. Camp Nelson reminds us 
                of the courage and determination

[[Page 54847]]

                possessed by formerly enslaved African Americans as 
                they fought for their freedom.

                WHEREAS, section 320301 of title 54, United States Code 
                (the ``Antiquities Act''), authorizes the President, in 
                his discretion, to declare by public proclamation 
                historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric 
                structures, and other objects of historic or scientific 
                interest that are situated upon the lands owned or 
                controlled by the Federal Government to be national 
                monuments, and to reserve as a part thereof parcels of 
                land, the limits of which shall be confined to the 
                smallest area compatible with the proper care and 
                management of the objects to be protected;

                WHEREAS, the Camp Nelson Historic and Archeological 
                District was designated as a National Historic Landmark 
                in 2016 for its national significance as the site of 
                one of the Nation's largest recruitment and training 
                centers for African American soldiers during the Civil 
                War, as well as a refugee camp for the families of 
                those African American soldiers;

                WHEREAS, Jessamine County, Kentucky, has donated to the 
                American Battlefield Trust fee title to the Camp Nelson 
                Civil War Heritage Park, located at 6614 Danville Road, 
                Nicholasville, Kentucky, totaling approximately 373 
                acres, and the nearby property containing archeological 
                evidence of the Camp Nelson Home for Colored Refugees, 
                totaling approximately 7 acres (collectively, the Camp 
                Nelson site);

                WHEREAS, the American Battlefield Trust has 
                relinquished fee title to these properties to the 
                Federal Government;

                WHEREAS, the designation of a national monument to be 
                administered by the National Park Service (NPS) would 
                recognize the historic significance of the Camp Nelson 
                site, particularly the events that transpired at this 
                location during and after the Civil War, and provide a 
                national platform for preserving this history;

                WHEREAS, the NPS intends to cooperate with Jessamine 
                County, Kentucky, in the preservation, interpretation, 
                operation, and maintenance of, and in educating about, 
                the Camp Nelson site;

                WHEREAS, it is in the public interest to preserve and 
                protect the Camp Nelson site, in Jessamine County, 
                Kentucky, and the objects of historic interest therein;

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the 
                United States of America, by the authority vested in me 
                by section 320301 of title 54, United States Code, 
                hereby proclaim the objects identified above that are 
                situated upon lands and interests in lands owned or 
                controlled by the Federal Government to be the Camp 
                Nelson National Monument (monument) and, for the 
                purpose of protecting those objects, reserve as a part 
                thereof all lands and interests in lands owned or 
                controlled by the Federal Government within the 
                boundaries described on the accompanying map entitled 
                ``Camp Nelson National Monument, Nicholasville, 
                Kentucky,'' which is attached to and forms a part of 
                this proclamation. The reserved Federal lands and 
                interests in lands encompass approximately 380 acres. 
                The boundaries described on the accompanying map are 
                confined to the smallest area compatible with the 
                proper care and management of the objects to be 
                protected.

                All Federal lands and interests in lands within the 
                boundaries described on the accompanying map are hereby 
                appropriated and withdrawn from all forms of entry, 
                location, selection, sale, or other disposition under 
                the public land laws, from location, entry, and patent 
                under the mining laws, and from disposition under all 
                laws relating to mineral and geothermal leasing.

                The establishment of the monument is subject to valid 
                existing rights. If the Federal Government acquires any 
                lands or interests in lands not owned or controlled by 
                the Federal Government within the boundaries described 
                on the accompanying map, such lands and interests in 
                lands shall be reserved as a part of the monument, and 
                objects identified above that are situated

[[Page 54848]]

                upon those lands and interests in lands shall be part 
                of the monument, upon acquisition of ownership or 
                control by the Federal Government.

                The Secretary of the Interior (Secretary) shall manage 
                the monument through the NPS, pursuant to applicable 
                legal authorities, consistent with the purposes and 
                provisions of this proclamation. The Secretary shall 
                prepare a management plan with full and appropriate 
                public involvement within 3 years of the date of this 
                proclamation. The management plan shall ensure that the 
                monument fulfills the following purposes for the 
                benefit of present and future generations: (1) to 
                preserve and protect the objects of historic interest 
                within the monument, and (2) to interpret the objects, 
                resources, and values related to the Camp Nelson site. 
                The management plan shall also set forth the desired 
                relationship of the monument to other related 
                resources, programs, and organizations, both within and 
                outside the National Park System.

                The NPS is directed to use applicable authorities to 
                seek to enter into agreements with others, including 
                Jessamine County, to address common interests and 
                promote management efficiencies, including provision of 
                visitor services, interpretation and education, 
                establishment and care of museum collections, and 
                preservation of historic objects.

                Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to revoke 
                any existing withdrawal, reservation, or appropriation; 
                however, the national monument shall be the dominant 
                reservation.

                Warning is hereby given that no unauthorized persons 
                shall appropriate, injure, destroy, or remove any 
                feature of this monument, or locate or settle upon any 
                of the lands thereof.

                IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                twenty-sixth day of October, in the year of our Lord 
                two thousand eighteen, and of the Independence of the 
                United States of America the two hundred and forty-
                third.
                
                
                    (Presidential Sig.)

Billing code 3295-F9-P



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[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TD31OC18.000


[FR Doc. 2018-24027
Filed 10-30-18; 2:00 p.m.]
Billing code 3295-F9-C