Person

Speed Smith Fry (Boyle County, KY, general, abuser of refugee families at Camp Nelson)

b. 1817-09-09 d. 1892-08-01

Mercer County, Kentucky, soldier. Kentucky native. Son of Thomas W. Fry and Elizabeth Fry. Attended Centre College in Danville, Kentucky. Graduated from Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana, in 1840. Married to Mildred T. Smith in Jefferson County, Kentucky, on November 4, 1847. Married to Cynthia Fry. Father of Walker Fry, Thomas Fry, and Speed S. Fry. Admitted to the bar in 1843. Served in the 2nd Kentucky Volunteer Infantry Regiment (U.S.A.) as a captain from June 9, 1846 to June 9, 1847. Merchant in Boyle County in 1850. County judge of Boyle County from 1857 to 1861. Served in the 4th Kentucky Volunteer Infantry Regiment (U.S.A.) as a colonel from October 9, 1861, to March 21, 1862. Served in the Army of the Ohio (U.S.A.) as a brigadier general from March 21, 1862, to August 24, 1865. Commandant of Camp Nelson from 1863 to November 29, 1864. Relieved of command at Camp Nelson after expelling over 400 black women and children from the camp in November 1864.

Details

Sex
Male
Race
White

Bibliography

Seventh Manuscript Census of the United States (1850), Population Schedules, Kentucky, Boyle County, District 2, p. 353B.

Eighth Manuscript Census of the United States (1860), Population Schedules, Kentucky, Boyle County, p. 891.

Ninth Manuscript Census of the United States (1870), Population Schedules, Kentucky, Boyle County, Danville, p. 182A.

“Among His Comrades: Death of General Speed S. Fry at Soldiers’ Home,” Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY), August 2, 1892, p. 6.

_Kentucky Marriage Records, 1783-1965, Madison County Courthouse, Richmond, Kentucky, Jefferson County Marriages, 1842-1853, Film 000482707, p. 176.

Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Kentucky, vol. 1, 1861-1866 (Frankfort: Kentucky Yeoman Office, 1866), 628-29.

Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Kentucky, vol. 2, 1861-1866 (Frankfort: Kentucky Yeoman Office, 1867), 921, 960.

Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Kentucky: Mexican War Veterans (Frankfort: John D. Woods, Public Printer, 1889), 36.

Frederick Dyer, A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion, vol. 1 (New York: Thomas Yoseloff, 1959), 66.

Ezra J. Warner, Jr., Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders, (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1964), 163-64.

Richard D. Sears, Camp Nelson, Kentucky: A Civil War History (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2002), 3, 111.

Citation

Fry, Speed Smith. Accessed via the Civil War Governors of Kentucky Digital Documentary Edition, https://discovery.civilwargovernors.org/document/S32203992 (November 12, 2026).

The people, organizations, and places listed below appear in the same documents as Speed Smith Fry (Boyle County, KY, general, abuser of refugee families at Camp Nelson). They are sorted by the number of documents they share.

Documents (4)

People

Organizations

Places

Loading network...

Network Visualized

How to use the visualization

CWGK’s network visualization brings the edition’s documents to life. The network on this page centers around Fry, Speed Smith. Click on the light blue dot to see the documents in which the entity appears. You can also click on the dark orange dots to see other people linked to Fry, Speed Smith, a light orange dot to see the places connected to Fry, Speed Smith, or dark green dots to see organizations linked to Fry, Speed Smith.

Additionally, the lines between the dots add additional information. The light green lines demonstrate direct connections between Fry, Speed Smith and another person, place, or organization. The light pink lines highlight that the dots appear in the same document.