Meet the investigators determined to find and memorialize the 22 Civil War soldiers from the 5th United States Colored Cavalry, who were ambushed and slain by racist outlaws outside of Camp Nelson, Kentucky.
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TRANSCRIPT
January 25th, 1865, near Simpsonville, Kentucky.
A group of U.S. Army Cavalrymen begins the next leg of an 85-mile-long cattle drive... when out of the blue, 22 soldiers are gunned down by a band of armed civilians.
The identities of the victims were largely forgotten.
Their final burial place lost to history.
Now, 160 years later, a trio of amateur investigators has teamed up to rediscover the personal stories of these forgotten Civil War soldiers... ...and to locate the site of their unmarked mass grave.
The investigation into this dark time in Kentucky history will reveal tales of extraordinary valor and shocking violence.
They were ambushed, and shot in the back.
You were really caught in a cauldron of uncertainty and violence.
It will also shed light on uncomfortable truths about the nation's and Abraham Lincoln's relationship to slavery.
A lot of Kentuckians feel that Lincoln betrayed them.
But behind the search for the details of these soldiers lives, and the circumstances surrounding their deaths, is a story of patriotism and determination.
They didn't know whether this would be the last time that they would ever see their family member again.
But they also understood they had a mission.
A story of long-held family secrets revealed...
When I learned that, I mean, my jaw dropped.
Just the connection.
This is now personal.
...and a chance to see if today's technology can help write a new ending to this forgotten moment in American history.