Please Note:  The following was sent to me by Lorin Dixson (please click on Lorin's name to send him an e-mail) in hopes that I might have some information concerning his great-grandfather, William H. Nichols.  Unfortunately I don't, but this is such a great story I just had to post it.  Please, if you have any information concerning William H. Nichols, contact Lorin.  Thanks and thank you Lorin for sending this to me!

NOTE-- a Very few veterans of the civil survivors of a very fine and gallant time in our history.  a great deal has been said about the Civil War, but accounts written by the men who did the fighting are not so common.  the author of the striking passages below was interviewed by me a few days ago, and asked to answer a few queries about his experiences in the old days.  His remarks were set down faithfully on the type- writer by Mrs. W.C. Bergen, whose home is at 2311 Huene St.  Mr. Nichols’ make a fine bit of history.

          He has a photographic memory.  To the rest of us, those times are rather dim.  At the end of his account a few notes have been added, about some points which might not be perfectly clear to the younger generation.  These matters are taken up in the order in  which they are brought up in Mr. Nichols’ story.

T. T. WATERMAN

By WILLIAM H. NICHOLS Late of the Confederate Army

At the age of ninety I am asked to tell of events I experienced nearly seventy years ago, and for my opinion concerning some of these happenings.  I am very glad to go over with you my life during the Civil War as far as I can remember it, but it’s pretty hard to recall the details of things so far in the past.  I reckon I can express my opinions too, without giving offense, although it would have been a dangerous thing to do in Kentucky in 1865.

          I was born in Dry Ridge, Grant County Kentucky, August 26, 1840. Both of my parents were Kentuckians.  My great Grandfather fought in the Revolutionary War, and my Grandfather in the War of 1812.

Family Had Slaves

          We lived on a tobacco plantation  several hundred acres which had formerly belonged to my grandfather.  There were some slaves in the family.  They never took advantage of their freedom, but ended their days in the cabins where they were born and raised.  They were loyal to us and to the cause of the south.  When I was saying goodbye to the family, my father, my mother, six sisters, a small brother, and the darkies, our old nurse broke the tension and brought us all a smile.  to console Mother she said, “Don’ you cry honey chile! Ef dem good-fo-nuthin’ Nawthun Kunnels come pokin’ dey noses roun’ heah after Marse Will’s gone, ebery shifless nigger on de place’ll shoo em off wif a hoe, an’ I’ll crack dey haids wif a broomstick!”  And I bet she would, for she was the recognized boss around our place.

ELECTED CAPTAIN

          Early in the summer of 1862 a group of us young fellows began to recruit a company to join Morgan’s cavalry.  Among them were Will Mc Neiss, Will McCurty, Joe Field, Whit Field, John Conrad, and myself.  We met around in school houses and about 80 of us were ready to be recruited when Kirby Smith’s confederate army came through Dry Ridge on its way to the town of Lexington.  We held a meeting, at which I was elected captain, and agreed to fall in line with Smith’s army.  We were without arms and dressed in civilian clothes of every color, except blue.  There was no command nearer than Perryville where we could enlist.  We thought if there were fighting there would be casualties in Kirby Smith’s command, and we would be there to take the place of the fallen ones.

          We marched up towards Lexington, but about this time the Yanks began a flank movement, and Smith fell back from Covington to protect his army.  We did not reach Perryville in time to take part in the fighting there, but we were given uniforms, a brace of Colt’s revolvers and a Spencer rifle.

          Morgan’s cavalry was in Perryville and we expressed our desire to become attached to it.  We were told that all cavalry horses had been sent on through the Cumberland gap, but that if we could get mounts we might do so.  I took about half the company and went out after horses.  We never got back to the confederate camp.  A bunch of Yank soldiers captured us and shoved us on a train and shipped us to Camp Chase, Ohio.

HIS FIRST FIGHTING

          We were in Camp Chase only a short while, until we were exchanged for federal prisoners, and sent to Johnson’s island.  From there we were sent to Vicksburg, and from Vicksburg to Mobile.  We were in our own lines, but not yet in the Army.  Finally we were sent to Abingdon, Virginia, where our fraction of a company was united with another fraction, and enlisted in Humphrey Marshall’s army, and became Company A, 4th Kentucky battalion.  Our major was Holliday, the Lieutenant-Colonel was Clay, Giltner was Colonel of the regiment.  I think Morgan was brigadier-general at this time.  Humphrey Marshall was the general in command.

          Humphrey Marshall was a very fine military man, and highly respected but he was a rather old man and too slow and deliberate, and was soon after retired from active service.

          Our first fighting was at the battle of Murfreesboro in January 1863.  We had been with Morgan into Kentucky, and destroyed bridges along the Cumberland river.  We destroyed the one at Nashville.

ALWAYS IN DANGER

          Morgan being a scout it was always our duty to get behind the lines of the enemy, to destroy their food and ammunition trains, and get a line on their location and strength.  We were always in danger always on the move, sometimes for days and nights together we never left our saddles.  But we ate well, and fed our horses well, usually of Yankee supplies.  When our horses were jaded we would capture federal horses and turn ours lose.

          At one time Morgan learned that at Lexington there were a number of thoroughbred horses from all over the state.  They had been taken there for protection.  The Yanks had 2000 troops camped five miles from Lexington.  They had 2000 cavalry guarding the city of Lexington.  Morgan decided to get those blooded horses for his cavalry.  Out about five miles from Lexington was a place called Cedar Grove.  The federals had 500 horses in a big pasture there.  I was detailed with fifty men to this pasture.  We captured the guards and took the keys to the gates away from them then we went inside, rounded up the horses and brought them to the gates, opened the gates and let the horses out into the streets.

RAISES REBEL YELL

          We raised the old rebel yell, the frightened tore down the road to Lexington, our 2000 cavalry right after them.  We stampeded the union cavalry, and drove them out of Lexington.  Then we had breakfast and chose our mounts.  We went out of there the finest mounted cavalry there ever was in the world.  I rode out on a fine silver grey animal worth more than a thousand dollars, in those days, the best horse I ever rode in my life. 

          I was with Morgan when he captured Wolford’s Kentucky command.  we crossed the Cumberland in canoes, for we had torn up the bridges ourselves before the battle of Murfreesboro.  Morgan had a quiet mind, he was always putting something over on the Yanks.  He used to tap the telegraph and get information, and send out messages to suit himself.  He tapped the wire this time and sent Wolford a message that he (Morgan) had left the state.

CAPTURED YANKS

Wolford thought the message came from union sources, and his command made comfortable for the night.  At daylight Morgan with a squad or so of men marched up to Wolford’s camp and demanded his arms.  Wolford, discovering he was completely surrounded and helpless, surrendered.  The men we didn’t want.  They were paroled but the horses and ammunition went south with us.

          It was about this time that our regiment was sent to join General Wheeler in the Seqatia valley, and Morgan went on his famous raid into Ohio.  We were not with him on that raid, but joined him again later.  It is my opinion that Morgan went on this raid primarily to keep the attention of the country on him.  While General Wheeler accomplished the task of intercepting Rosencrans’ army.  If this is the case he surely succeeded for Morgan’s raid into Ohio is remembered today, while Wheeler’s capture of the wagon trains in the Sequatia valley, which was of far greater importance to the cause of the south is little known.

PICTURE BOOK HERO

          General Morgan was a fine looking man, brave beyond compare, the type of man to inspire hero worship, although looking back now I cannot think he was as great a man as was General Wheeler.

          Morgan was a friendly man on long trips he would ride among us and joke, and was not above telling a yarn now and then.

          The southern soldier was usually singing or swearing.  I wasn’t much of a singer myself, and don’t remember the words of many of the songs, outside of “Dixie,” and “The Bonnie Blue Flag,” but there was “ Johnnie get your Gun,” “ Old Dan Tucker,” and lots and lots more and “ They never Can Lick Us,” the chorus of which was:

          “They never can lick us and that you can see.

          “Not while we’ve brave Beauregard Johnston, John Morgan and Lee.”

          There were songs improvised for every occasion, and to inspire us after things began to look desperate.

          Once on a long march I fell asleep in my saddle.  About half awake I asked the fellow riding next to me what out fit we were in. He gave me the name of some Indiana outfit.  My eyes flew open at that -- sure enough there I was riding along with a company of blue coats.  I thought quick it was pretty dark where we were but we were coming out into the light.  Soon I would be a lost Rebel.  I turned my horses head towards the woods.  “Where are you going’?” asked this soldier. “Wait a minute, I’ll take you to headquarters.”

          DARING ESCAPE

          “Thanks” said I.  “I know the way.”  By that time I knew he had recognized me.  I gave my horse the spurs and plunged into the woods.  He couldn’t break ranks to follow without orders, and long before he got them I was safe away.

          At the time we were sent to join General Wheeler in Tennessee we were eleven days and nights in the saddle.  We were riding three days and nights before we reached Wheeler’s army, and it will give you an idea of the condition of the army cavalry when I tell you we were considered “fresh” troops, and were among 1200 picked troops chosen by General Wheeler himself to go with him into the hills to search the valleys for Rosencrans wagon train. Without rest we continued to ride eight days more, eleven days in all.  It was rough riding in the Cumberland mountains, and we were often soaked in rain.  At last we sighted the wagon train.  It was a beautiful sight, the whole valley white with wagon tops.  There were droves of horses and mules.

HORSES SHOT UNDER HIM

           As we sat there on our tired horses and looked at this magnificent display of bounty, guarded by two brigades of cavalry, and lines of marching infantry.  I made up my mind that the first thing I would do is get myself a fresh mount.  And before two hours passed I had been astride five different  animals, two of which were shot from under me.  In the very beginning of the fighting, I singled out a beautiful little mare, and transferred my saddle and bridle to her.  We could change a saddle and bridle as quick as you could put on a coat.  She didn’t carry me long for the fighting was hot and a bullet passed through the leg of my trousers and killed her.  As she fell I swung to the back of a lose wagon mule.  He wasn’t my idea of a cavalry horse but he kept me off the ground anyway.  Soon I saw a federal cavalry horse saddled and bridled running loose.  I caught him, hooked my leg over the cantle of his saddle my arm around his neck, and hanging far down on his side, shot from the side of his head as the Texans did.  He went down under me but by that time the victory was ours, and I could chose any horse I wanted.  In two hours we had captured the wagon train , routed the enemy and taken more prisoners than we had men.  The next thing to do was burn the wagons.  It seemed terrible to burn all the tons and tons of food and ammunition when our army needed it so bad, but we couldn’t get it out of the valley.  To burn it was the only thing to do.

BURNED 3,000 WAGONS

We piled the wagons up in stacks of forty, and set fire to them.  I don’t know how many there were, but I believe it has been estimated that there were around 3,000.  We took the arms away from the men, and burned their arms too.  We stampede the stock and paroled the men.

          I think we were with Wheeler for a little more than a month.  We succeeded in separating Rosencrans cavalry from the rest of his army as well destroying this wagon train.

          I don’t remember just when we did get back with Morgan, but I do remember we were with him when he had a hurried call to go to the protection of the saltworks and coal mines at Wytheville.  That is another battle I will never forget, and one of the most terrible I know of.

          Burbridge of the federal army was there when we got there, and the place was full of Negroes.  There was a little open space between the armies, and a thicket on either side.  When the battle was over the little glade was piled high with dead men most of them blacks.  It was a trick of the north to put the Negroes in the front ranks. Burbridge got out and fled to the mountains.

MORGAN IS KILLED

          At the time Morgan was killed we were on our way to make an attack on the enemy near Knoxville.  We stopped to camp for the night at Greenville.  Morgan feeling perfectly safe among friends, took quarters in a house for himself and staff.  Our pickets were thrown out and we camped about  half a mile away.  It was a rainy night and near morning we heard the crack, crack, of firing.  In less than no time we were mounted and rode for the place.  The shooting was in the direction of Morgan’s quarters.  My company camped among the closest, arrived in time to see Morgan’s body thrown across a horse by federal soldiers.

          Then every thing was confusion and fighting.  The word soon spread among our men that Morgan was dead and the Federals were trying to parade his body through the streets of Greenville.  But we put a stop to that.  We got possession of his body and retreated about five miles.  Here we got organized, threw up some barriers and waited for the enemy, but they did not follow us. They had done what they had come to do kill Morgan.  Murder him, that’s what they did.  It was an unfair, unwarlike trick.  The honorable thing to do

, the thing Morgan would have done had the case been reversed, was to hold the general a prisoner and capture our whole army.  This could easily have  been done.  For a woman spy had ridden in the night to Bull’s Gap, where the enemy was camped, and led the assassins through past our pickets to Morgan’s quarters.

          FAMOUS GENERALS

          As I  said at the outset I’m a little uncertain about some thing’s.  But I don’t think anyone succeeded Morgan in command.  The troops under him never at any time were more than four or maybe five thousand.  At the time of his death the whole southern army was very much depleted, and I think Morgan’s men were sent to fill in where they were most needed.  The command was broken up.  Our regiment under General Horton remained with the cavalry in Lee’s army.  General Wade Hampton was in general command over all cavalry. “Jubilee” Early and Forrest and Wheeler were the Generals we came most in contact with.  You know of course, that Lee at this time was actively commanding the army of Northern Virginia, and at the same time commander-in-chief of all the armies.

          Sherman was making his famous march to the sea, and everything that could be done to stop him was being done.  General Johnston with the army of Tennessee was marching up from the south.  Wheeler’s army was on the north, Hardee and Butler in the west.

          Then one morning in the month of March while at Wytheville I was handed an order by Lieut. Norman.  It was from Colonel Jesse, and ordered me to take twenty men and go into Kentucky and locate and bring out part of a regiment of Morgan’s men.

HEARS OF SURRENDER

          While we were on this trip, news reached us that Lee had surrendered to General Grant.  It was an anxious time until we heard something of the terms of the surrender.  We did not but what we would all be made prisoners of war, and we expected the property of our generals would be confiscated by the Union government.  Some even went so far as to say that the land would be given to the Negroes, and we would have to work for them.

          So you can have some idea of the relief we felt when we learned of General Grants terms.  And I can safely say that no general in the North was as highly respected and honored by the confederates  as was General Grant.  “Keep your horses and plow your fields with them,” he said.  “Keep your guns and shoot squirrels with them.”  He was a good, brave man, honorable in war and generous in victory.

          We surrendered in Henry County, Kentucky.  We took the oath of allegiance, and were allowed to keep our pistols and horses.

ODDS AGAINST THEM

          You ask who were the best scrappers, Johnnies or Yanks.  It looks like the Yanks had us licked.  But all the odds were against us.  we had more and better trained and wiser generals and leaders, but we didn’t have the class of population in the south from which to draw the body of the army.  The Johnnie’s fought more desperately, we had a more personal interest in the war, we were fighting for our very homes on our own soil.  We were fighting for our freedom, just as our ancestors had fought for theirs, and who knows that George Washington, had he been alive, wouldn’t have been with us?

          You ask about the battle of Gettysburg.  The result of the battle was of course very depressing to the South.  It was generally felt that this was the turning point of the war.  Stonewall Jackson, said to be Lee’s greatest dependence, had been killed only a month before, and I often heard it said that in losing Jackson we lost the battle of Gettysburg, and in losing the battle of Gettysburg, we lost the war.

WAR’S BRAVEST FEAT

          The storming of Mary’s hill by Pickett’s men at the battle of Gettysburg, I think was the finest feat of the war, and I don’t believe any braver thing was ever done by any army in any war.  The charge was made up hill, a distance of more than a mile, with the enemy above pouring down sheets of artillery fire.  With terrible losses these brave men finally succeeded in planting the Stars and Bars within the enemy’s lines. But there was not the support Pickett should of had and the victory was ours only for a brief period.  It was a bitter pill to take, a loss which came near being a victory, and no doubt had Stonewall Jackson been alive, the result would of been different.  We would of marched into Washington, and the war would of ended long before it did.

          No, we never did learn the infantry manual of arms.  We were never trained as soldiers.  We often had to dismount and fight as infantry.  In that case our horses were kept in the rear, every eighth man detailed as horse holder.  Towards the last two horse holders could hold all the horses in a company.

“GO GET EM”

          The commands for loading and firing were “load and fire.” They told us in plain English what to do and you could hear the orders shouted all down the line.  Old General Horton used to ride up and down the lines shouting “Go get em! Go get em!”

          You ask what was the closest call I ever had.  Well I reckon I never had any very close call.  Never got but one wound, a saber cut on the top of my head.  But the hair and skin was so thick it never did much damage.

          This happened at the battle of Muscle Shoals the river is very broad and shallow.  We had some hot fighting there.  The Federals charged our lines, and captured the whole of our artillery.  Under fire and with great losses of men and horses we finally retired across the river.  We were out of ammunition, and were just dismounting when General Horton discovered a pet battery of his had been captured.  I guess he had those six pieces of brass cannon all over Texas.  Anyway he wasn’t going to lose them.  He rode out in front of us and yelled, “They’ve captured our battery; get on your horses and go get that battery; GET THAT BATTERY!”

HAND TO HAND FIGHT

          We milled across the river again under fire, swimming our horses up and down the stream.  Those of our men who hadn’t yet made the crossing turned back with us.  We charged the battery.  We had no ammunition, and very few of us had sabers.  Sabers had been issued us but we didn’t like them and had thrown them away.  It was a hand to hand fight and we used our pistols as clubs.  Finally after about two hours fighting we got possession of the battery, hitched on to it and started off.  we hauled it across the river expecting every moment to be mowed down, but the Yanks had suddenly became quiet not a shot was fired.  We couldn’t understand it.

          After the war was over I met a young Yank who had been wagon master there at the time.  I asked him why they let us haul that battery away, and didn’t shoot us.  “We did not have anything to shoot with,” he said, “except empty shells.  Why didn’t you fellows capture us?  We were helpless.”  And there we had been, both sides afraid of the other, and both sides out of ammunition.

SON IN WORLD WAR

          Although it has nothing to do with the story, I’d like to tell you I afterwards married the sister of this young fellow’s brother-in-law another Yankee soldier.  This young lady, Miss Maria Ann Shoot, and I, united the North and South.  We lived happily together for 58 years, and raised five girls and three boys.  Our youngest did his bit for Uncle Sam in the late World War. 

Morgan

          The commander here mentioned is the famous John Morgan, later Brigadier General in the Confederate forces, and a world renown raider. during raid into Ohio in July, 1863 he was captured and put for safe keeping into the Ohio state penitentiary. By November of that year he was over the wall and away, and back within the Confederate lines.

KIRBY SMITH

          The movement which Mr. Nichols describes was part of the invasion or occupation of Kentucky by Braxton Bragg with a Confederate army.  Both Kirby Smith and Bragg reached the rank of lieutenant general in the Confederate forces.  At the close of the war Bragg, after many ups and downs, was serving as chief of staff to Jefferson Davis.

PERRYVILLE

          The name of this battle does not loom very large in the school histories, but a desperate engagement was fought there, between the army of the Ohio under Don Carlos Buell and the Confederate army of the Mississippi under Bragg.  The Battle occurred on October 8, 1862.

HUMPHREY MARSHALL

          This distinguished officer, cited for gallantry at Buena Vista in the Mexican War, was a relative of John Marshall, the great chief justice.  He disputed the possession of eastern Kentucky with “Colonel”  James A Garfield, afterwards President of the United States.

          Humphrey Marshall, very highly regarded by Lee, was old and very heavy when the war broke out.  An idea of the privations and gallantry of the Confederate troops in that section may gained from the fact that a sane and sensible man like Robert E. Lee. wrote to Marshall offering him pikes to arm his troops with, the only weapons he had at hand.

MURFREESBORO

          This is the battle known in Confederate literature as Stone’s River.  I have remarked elsewhere that the Civil War battles rarely tuned out as they ought to.  In fact they rarely turned out at all.  Both sides were too obstinate to give way, or care for losses.  Both sides had losses at Murfreesboro that would of chased any European army of that period clear off the field and out of site.

GENERAL JOSEPH WHEELER

          This fine Confederate officer fought afterwards in the war with Spain, as major general in the United States forces.

THE SALT WORKS

          This spot in southwest Virginia was of enormous importance to the Confederacy.  The bulk of their supply of salt was drawn from these works.  Mr. Nichols and the command he was with, were thrown in to protect them, apparently just in time.

BRASS CANNON

          Both sides seem to have started the war with iron cannon.  From all accounts these pieces were rather unreliable, and the discharges eroded the touch holes, so that the piece after long use would blow out behind as much as it did in front.

          An old fellow who commanded a Union battery at Gettysburg once spoke with positive affection of the 12 brass “Napoleons” he got in the second year of the war.  He said they were beautiful weapons, and you could shoot at a hat, up to a thousand yards.

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