Taylor Boss, a senior History major in the Class of 2025, recently completed an internship at Camp Nelson National Monument. Her wide-ranging experience included working in guest services, researching muster rolls dating back to 1864, cleaning facilities, and leading history hikes.
Located just eight miles from Asbury University, Camp Nelson is a recently designated national monument. The site began as a Union Army supply depot and later became an emancipation center for enslaved Kentuckians.
During her internship, Boss also developed a new tour of the Civil War site. The tour highlights the movement and interactions of Black refugees, white refugees from East Tennessee, U.S. Colored Troops, enslaved Black laborers, white Union soldiers, abolitionists, and enslavers at Camp Nelson. It aims to explore, in Boss’s words, “the complexity of Kentucky’s geographical and political location during the war.”
“We want to drive home the difficult aspects of history,” Boss said.