By Steve Flairty
NKyTribune columnist
Some 80 men of Company E of the 5th US Colored Cavalry were driving a herd of cattle from Camp Nelson, near Nicholasville, to Louisville to supply food for those in the town. Soldiers in the back of the company were ambushed by Confederate guerrillas; about 22 soldiers were killed and 20 wounded. The sordid event happened in the last year of the American Civil War on January 25, 1865, near Simpsonville along where Highway 60 is located today.
Though much has been recently learned about the massacre, there remains more to discover. Who were all the names who died and were wounded? What happened to the wounded and to those not harmed? How could it have been prevented, as Kentucky had a presence of Union forces not far away? And one of the most compelling is this: Where are the bodies of the dead buried?
In the recently released PBS documentary, The Civil War’s Lost Massacre, the last question is explored by sharing the valiant efforts of three individuals — all having diligently searched their own family histories for connections — to find where the actual burial location is.
The reaction to the documentary has been strong, according to Stephen Phan, historian at Camp Nelson National Monument, with people saying that they hadn’t previously heard of the massacre. “And that includes (hearing that) from Civil War historians . . . and these are some of the most knowledgeable Civil War historians in the country,” said Phan. “This story was ignored for almost 160 years, so this was not a surprise.”
Lost Massacre showcases three emotionally invested people, along with University of Kentucky archaeologist Philip Mink, who seek to bring the mostly untold story to life.
David Brown became interested in the story when he came across his grandmother’s chest of family heirlooms and found that his great-great-grandfather, Samual Truehart, was a slave who enlisted in the Union Army as a member of the ill-fated Company E in exchange for his freedom. Truehart was one of the over 179,000 black men in the country who joined to fight the Confederate Army. Of those, about 10,000 trained at Camp Nelson, which was the third largest recruiter in America of Blacks for the Civil War, and largest in Kentucky.
Trueheart, Brown discovered, survived the attack and in time, moved with his family after the War to the state of Kansas, where he and his wife raised a family that appears to have been relatively prosperous. But even after discovering this somewhat happy ending for his kin, Brown still is focused on hearing more about the story, particularly the burial place of the dead.
Another family history seeker and script writer, Juanita White, learned about two soldiers who served with Trueheart. Through the finding, she found a bit more information about Company E and the attack, and she wrote a one-man play about the massacre experience. White plans to continue her pursuit for more information.
Jerry Miller also has a passion for family history and beyond. He made a startling discovery while researching the massacre event, something he has been actively doing for 20 years. “All this happened right around where I live (in Shelby County), and I didn’t know about it until I was almost 60 years-old,” he explained.
Not only that, but Miller also learned the unsavory fact that some of his ancestors had owned slaves, and that two of them later enlisted in Company E. “When I learned that, my jaw dropped,” he said. “And just the connection… this is getting personal.” With help from the UK staff, including Mink and engineers there, along with the work and support of David Brown and Juanita White, Miller looks to find closure about the issue, particularly about where the fallen are buried.
There appears to be some movement recently, according to the Lost Massacre documentary. Miller came across an old cemetery that showed promise as being the mass burial place, but with the help of archaeologist Mink and crew, it proved a dead end (no pun intended). There was another possibility to consider, however. Miller found an old highway survey map drawn in 1936 for what is now known as the well-traveled Highway 60. “There was a spot, and it said, ‘Civil War burial mound,” noted Miller.
The spot mentioned is on a farm that belongs to a family owning the property since before the Civil War. The family has been supportive of the search efforts, and Mink’s team has done intense preliminary investigation of the site. But out of respect for the family, the team will wait until the field of ryegrass growing season is over.
Is there optimism about what will be found??
Though Mink said there were no guarantees, he noted that preliminary findings indicated some hope. He talked about using a backhoe to find soil changes indicating a burial, then go in with hand tools for a closer look.
And what if the road survey site is found to be the actual mass burial place for those killed in the massacre?
Financial grants would play a huge part in whatever is done, Mink explained, but one idea would be to leave them there at Simpsonville, and the other is to bring them back to Camp Nelson Cemetery to be reinterred, where they’d be given full military honors. Mink favors the latter. (Note: A memorial consisting of gravestones commemorating the slain sits along Highway 60 near Simpsonville, though not on the original site)
Regardless, my hope is that much more information is learned about what happened 160 years ago, that a measure of closure for Brown, White, and Miller is gained, and an accurate perspective on America’s history will provide useful guidance going forward.
To view The Civil War’s Lost Massacre online, visit pbs.org.