William "Bull" Nelson

William "Bull" Nelson (September 27, 1824 – September 29, 1862) was a United States naval officer who became a Union general during the American Civil War.

As a Kentuckian, Nelson could have sympathized with the Confederates but, like his state, he remained loyal to the United States of America. Secretary of Treasury Salmon P. Chase believed Nelson's actions had kept Kentucky loyal and promoted him to brigadier general in September 1861. Nelson's 4th Division bore the brunt of heavy fighting at the Battle of Shiloh and took part in the Siege of Corinth; he was the first man to enter the town.

Wounded at the Battle of Richmond, Nelson was forced to retreat to Louisville to plan a new assault. It was there that General Jefferson C. Davis, still officially on sick leave, reported to Nelson, who was dissatisfied with his performance and insulted him in front of witnesses. A few days later, Davis demanded a public apology, however, the situation rapidly escalated into a physical confrontation, which concluded in Davis mortally wounding Nelson with a pistol.

Early life

William "Bull" Nelson was the third and youngest son of Dr. Thomas W. Nelson (1796–1849) and Frances Doniphan (1795–1845) of Maysville, Kentucky. He attended Maysville Academy (Seminary) and was enrolled in Norwich University at 13.A. [nderson] N. [elson] Ellis, "Sketch of the Life of William Nelson, Maj.-Gen. U.S.A" in The Biographical Cyclopaedia and Portrait Gallery with a Historical Sketch of the State of Ohio 6 vols. (Cincinnati, 1883–95); also see the 37-page extract at the Cincinnati Historical SocietyDr. A. M. [N] Ellis, "Major General William Nelson," Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 7 (May 1906): 56–64.

Two years later, Nelson's preparatory training at the Vermont military school concluded when Representative Garrett Davis secured an appointment for him to become a midshipman in the US Navy.Ellis, "Major General William Nelson," 56–58Catalogue of the Officers and Students of Norwich University for the Academic Year 1836–37 (Montpelier, 1837), 6, 12–14 In the spring of 1840, Nelson reported for training aboard the .Abstracts of Service Records of Naval Officers 1798–1893. v. 1. July 1840 to December 1845, Microfilm Publication No. 330, Roll 6, Record Group (RG) 45, National Archives (NAB, Washington, DC; Letters Received Accepting Appointments as Commissioned and Warrant Officers, April 20, 1812, to October 1864, Entry 125, RG 45, NAB For the next five years, he sailed the South Pacific. Nelson then joined the first class to attend the newly established Naval Academy, at Annapolis, Maryland.Arthur A. Griese, "A Louisville Tragedy-1862," Filson Club History Quarterly 26 (April 1952): 151Allen Johnson, Dumas Malone, eds., Dictionary of American Biography (DAB) 11 vols. New York, 1958–64)1: 566, 2: 206; James C. Bradford, ed., Captains of the Old Steam Navy: Makers of the American Naval Tradition, 1840–1880 (Annapolis, 1986), 94, 96. On July 11, 1846, Nelson became a passed midshipman,U.S. Naval Academy Association, Inc., Register of Alumni Book 1 Classes of 1846–1917 (Annapolis, 1996); Student Records, Academic Board of Records, Class of 1846, 44, 128-31: RG 405, NA at Annapolis; and the next October, he reported for duty aboard the , the flagship for the Home Squadron in the Gulf of Mexico. At the Siege of Veracruz, he served with Naval Battery No. 5, and on the second Tabasco Expedition, Nelson was a member of the Second Artillery Division. In February 1848, he became acting master of the . At the conclusion of his service, Nelson received a sword for heroism and proficiency as an artillerist.Donald A. Clark, The Notorious Bull Nelson: Murdered Civil War General (Carbondale,2011), 13–21 In the summer of 1849, he joined the Mediterranean Squadron, and on September 1, 1851, he was acting lieutenant of the when exiled Hungarian revolutionary Louis Kossuth boarded the vessel to come to the United States. In December, Nelson became an escort for Kossuth's famous tour of the United States. On September 19, 1854, he was promoted to sailing master and on April 18, 1855, he achieved the rank of lieutenant. In September 1858, Nelson joined the for the mission of returning captured slaves to Monrovia, Liberia. Two years later, he was at the Washington Navy Yard as an ordnance officer.Clark, "Bull" Nelson, 22-36

Civil War

Kentucky The second day after the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln, US Navy Lieutenant William Nelson walked into the Executive Mansion with the peculiar manner of Kentuckians that said: "Here I am; if you don't like me, the worse for you."E. W. Emerson and Waldo E. Forbes, eds., The Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson in Ralph Waldo Emerson Essays and Journal (Garden City, 1968), 667 ("Here I am") The imposing personality had served at sea for "twelve years and six months. He performed shore and other duty for over four years, and was nearly five years unemployed, making a total of twenty-one years of service" to his nation.Cincinnati Daily Commercial, November 18, 1861 A "striking figure" who carried his weight "lightly," he "was endowed with a strong intellect and a memory [,] which enabled him to repeat, verbatim, page after page of his favorite authors." Nelson was a "fluent and captivating talker, and when he wished to please, no man could be more congenial and companionable." Conversely, when he was "irritated or opposed," the veteran of the Old Navy could become disgustingly "dictatorial and dogmatic." He had a natural affinity for the Southern way of life, and Lincoln could see that subversive elements might want to court such a "warm hearted, handsome," and "aristocratic" individual who gave the impression of someone who was apt to "cast his lot" with slaveholders.A. [nderson] N. [elson] Ellis, "Sketch of the Life of William Nelson, Maj.-Gen. U.S.A." in The Biographical Cyclopaedia and Portrait Gallery with a Historical Sketch of the State of Ohio 6 vols. (Cincinnati, 1883–95); also see 37 page extract at Cincinnati Historical Society, p. 6 ("warm-hearted"); Robert M. Kelly, "Holding Kentucky," Kelly, Robert M. "Holding Kentucky for the Union" in Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Robert Underwood Johnson and Clarence C. Buel, eds. 4 vols. Century Magazine. 1887. 1: 375 ("striking figure" though "dogmatic") At the request of Lincoln, Nelson measured the political currents of his native state and returned to the Executive Mansion on May 3, 1861, with "his plan for furnishing arms to the Kentucky Unionists." It was apparent to Lincoln that he had found the right man.

Nelson was to work out details for a distribution of arms in Kentucky with Joshua Fry Speed in Louisville, and as he headed off, Secretary of War Simon Cameron released 5,000 ancient Prussian flintlocks that had been converted into percussion cap rifles to shift the balance of power to the Union Home Guard.Thomas Speed, R. M. Kelly, and Alfred Pirtle, The Union Regiments of Kentucky, (Louisville, 1897), 99 (first quote); John G. Nicolay and John Hay, "Abraham Lincoln: A History. The Border States," Century Magazine 36 (May 1888): 72; Daniel Stevenson, "General Nelson, Kentucky, and Lincoln Guns." Magazine of American History 10 (August 1883): 118 (second quote), 122; (Paris, Ky.) Western Citizen, May 31, 1861; New York Times, May 27, 1861

On July 1, 1861, Nelson was detached from the Navy with instructions to organize a force of 10,000 troops for an expedition into East Tennessee. Two weeks later, Nelson spoke with Union leaders from southeastern Kentucky at Lancaster and Crab Orchard. The latter town was conveniently located at the south end of the turnpike in Garrard County and was at the head of the Wilderness Road, 65 mi north of the Cumberland Gap at the old inn at Bryant Springs, the first headquarters, and it was agreed the leaders would raise thirty companies of infantry and five of cavalry. Thomas E. Bramlette had one company in camp on July 20 and another on July 24, 1861. Some seven miles north of Lancaster and twelve miles from the rail depot at Nicholasville, Jessamine County, Richard M. Robinson offered to lease 425 acres of first-class rolling pastureland at Hoskins Crossroads. Nelson considered that to be as a much better site for a camp of instruction, and the new recruits were marched into Camp Dick Robinson, in violation of Kentucky's somewhat duplicitous position of neutrality.

On August 5, 1861, Union men in Kentucky elected 75 men to the House of Representatives who were opposed by the 24 men in the States' Rights movement. In the Senate, the Unionists elected 27 men, who were opposed by 11 States' Rights men. Thus, out of 138 seats, there were now 103 (75 percent of the state legislature) who supported the Union. Colonel Speed S. Fry marched a detachment of the Second Regiment Kentucky Volunteer Infantry (later the Fourth) toward Camp Dick Robinson, and at dusk, the First Regiment Kentucky Cavalry welcomed them with a salute from a mountain howitzer.United States War Department, The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series 1, 2, 3. 70 vols. 128 serials (Washington: 1880–1901), Series 1, 4: 251–53, hereafter cited as OR Series, volume (part), and pageNational Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 94, Letters Sent and Received 1861–71, Thomas E. Bramlette (720B)William C. Goodoe, Kentucky Unionists of 1861: Address of William Cassius Goodloe... read before the Society of ex-army and navy officers in Cincinnati, Ohio. April 1 (Cincinnati, 1884), 15. The next day, US Representative Charles A. Wickliffe informed his colleagues in the House that Kentucky "is wholly for the Union."A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774–1875 Congressional Globe, Senate, 37th Congress, 1st Session <http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llcg&fileName=057/llcg057.db&recNum=475> Congressional Globe, August 6, 1861, page 458; OR Series 1, 4: 381 (remaining quotations)Sergeant E. Tarrant, The Wild Riders of the First Kentucky Cavalry (Louisville, 1894), 9, 13–18"Two Noted Civil War Recruiting Camps: A Look at Camp Dick Robinson and Camp Nelson," Kentucky Explorer (March 2000), 60–63 US Secretary of Treasury Salmon P. Chase believed that Nelson's actions were responsible for keeping Kentucky loyal to the Union and saw that Nelson became a brigadier general on September 16, 1861.Robert Means Thompson and Richard Wainwright, eds., Confidential Correspondence of Gustavus Vasa Fox Assistant Secretary of the Navy 1861–1865, (New York, 1918), 1: 379–80. United States War Department, The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series 1, 2, 3. 70 vols. 128 serials (Washington: 1880–1901), Series 1, 4: 251–53, hereafter cited as OR Series, volume (part), and page. He then organized a new brigade at Camp Kenton, three miles below Maysville, and marched them to Olympian Springs, Bath County, Kentucky. Near the end of October, those troops from Ohio and Kentucky routed the Confederates at Hazel Green and West Liberty. On November 8, Confederate troops, under Captain Andrew Jackson May, fought a delaying action against Nelson at the Battle of Ivy Mountain. That night and the following day, Confederates, under Colonel John Stuart Williams, abandoned Piketon (Pikeville, Kentucky). Early the next morning, Nelson's northern prong, under Colonel Joshua W. Sill, arrived at the town, which marked the end of the Big Sandy expedition.

Nashville/Pittsburg Landing/Shiloh