Biographical and historical memoirs of Mississippi, embracing an authentic and comprehensive account of the chief events in the history of the state and a record of the lives of many of the most worthy and illustrious families and individuals, Vol. II, Part 76

Author: Goodspeed Brothers
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Chicago, Goodspeed
Number of Pages: 1314

USA > Mississippi > Biographical and historical memoirs of Mississippi, embracing an authentic and comprehensive account of the chief events in the history of the state and a record of the lives of many of the most worthy and illustrious families and individuals, Vol. II > Part 76

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Stephen E. Nash, the father of the immediate subject of this sketch, acquired a liberal education, and was a man of fine literary taste. He was a lawyer and practiced his profes- sion for many years. At the date of his death he had retired from practice, and was farming somewhat extensively, and besides was a large owner of uncultivated woodlands mostly in the western portion of Oktibbeha county, Miss. In politics, before the war of 1861 broke out, he was a whig. He did not favor secession at the time and in the way it was brought about. When the troubles of 1861 confronted the people of the South he was a co-operationist, believing in the wisdom of all the slave-holding states co-operating together, and demanding in the Union, and as a whole their rights of property guaranteed to them by the constitution. He further believed that if war resulted it was best for the state to fight for its rights under the stars and stripes, and if a withdrawal was ultimately decided upon, as for the best for all the states to withdraw together. Although he was of this mind, when the war actually began, he went with, and heartily supported his section, and the action of his state taken in her sovereign capacity to the day of his death. To make the Southern cause a success, he gave up two of his sons, they being the only two near military age, and sent them to the front,

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before they were rarely able to bear arms, to do battle for their home and for their country, which was then invaded. Both of his boys were in the Confederate service at the surrender and on active duty at the front. As some evidence of the extent that this gentleman and this family were wrapped up in the fate of the young Confederacy, two incidents may be very prop- erly mentioned in passing. The father (S. E. Nash) was almost heartbroken at the st- render of Vicksburg. It is said he hardly saw a well day after he heard positive news of the capitulation, its particulars and its extent. Vicksburg fell on the 4th day of July, A. D. 1863, and Stephen E. Nash died the 16th day of July, 1863, only twelve days later. The eldest daughter, Elvira Jane Nash, at the surrender was a schoolgirl at the Judson, in Marion, Ala. Owing it is said to some exposure, and the excitement and sorrow caused by the news of the surrender of the Southern armies, she sickened and died but a few days thereafter. Though in perfect health at that date, yet she lived but a short time after the fall of the Confederacy. The surrender took place in May, 1865, and her death occurred on the 4th of June following.

Wiley Norris Nash was born in Noxubee county, Miss., some fourteen miles south of Starkville, on the 6th day of April, 1846. His early childhood was passed less than thirty miles from where he now lives, in Noxubee and Winston counties, his father having moved to Starkville, Oktibbeha county, when this son was about six years old. Here most of his youth was spent, and here his mother, a lady of great worth and of a pure and lovely Christian character, died. The family moved when he was fifteen out in the western portion of Oktib- beha county, where they were living when the war broke out. Up to this time our subject's education had been well conducted, as it was for some twelve months thereafter. When the war began he was a mere boy, anxious even then to enter the service, his elder brother, James H. Nash, having joined the army soon after hostilities began. He was, however, kept at home and at school during the early part of that sanguinary conflict, but enlisted in the Con- federate service at sixteen, being quite small for his age, weighing only ninety-six pounds. He served first, but not long, with state troops. He joined Adams' regiment of cavalry just before the fall of Vicksburg, with which he served a short time, being detached within a few months on extra hazardous duty with Harvey's scouts, with which command he served regularly until the day of the surrender, being at that date one of the sergeants of this com- pany. When hostilities ceased he had seen hard service in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee, mostly in Mississippi and Georgia. In each of these four states named members of this company lost their lives in the service of their country. In Mississippi, Mr. Nash saw most of his service in that portion of the state lying between Yazoo City and Natchez, and in that lying between Vicksburg and Meridian, and the larger part of this service was in Hinds, Warren and Claiborne counties. In Georgia he served in the campaigns of Generals Johnston and Hood. Harvey's scouts was organized under special military orders and was commanded by Capt. Addison Harvey, of Canton, Miss., one of the tried, one of the truest and one of the bravest sons of the South, a typical Southern soldier. This command served as a company during about one-half of the war, and carried on its roll first and last one hundred and twenty-eight men. Of this number during the time it was in service it lost in killed, wounded and captured, fifty-seven men. That is to say, there were twenty-nine captured, of which number sixteen made their escape and twelve were killed; there were six- teen wounded, of whom four were wounded twice. One of this four was wounded near Natchez, Miss., in a close fight with infantry, being shot and bayoneted in the same action. Of the wounded another was badly cut across the head in a fight with cavalry near Atlanta, Ga. Mr. Nash was severely wounded near Rome, Ga. In another fight during the time he

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was in service he had his gun struck with a ball. He also had two of his horses slightly wounded, one while he was in a cavalry charge in Mississippi, and the other in Georgia in a fight with infantry. At the time Mr. Nash was wounded he was in charge of a squad of four men with orders to leave the company, then on the south bank of the Etawa river some ten miles above Rome, cross over and cut the telegraph wire just on the other side and return promptly. The party of five entered a rough boat or flat, and when within about twenty yards of the northern bank of the river some Federal infantry, before that time concealed, opened a deadly fire on the little squad. Mr. Nash, who was standing up in the boat, was shot through the outer muscle of the right thigh and fell overboard. He contrived to catch to the gunwale of the boat, however, as it was turning toward the southern shore, and was thus saved. The enemy continued to pour in their fire, splintering the boat at every volley, twice wounding Corporal Portwood, and killing outright J. Catlett, a brave and gallant soldier. Meanwhile Captain Harvey, with his company on the other side, opened fire on the Federal force, and under cover of this fire the party in the boat effected their escape. This company, though such was not its leading line of duty, did necessarily much special secret service, such as scouting for information, where generally one, two or three men were engaged, and squad scouting, where ten or fifteen men were, according to circumstances, sent out under a lieutenant or non-commissioned officer. The foregoing service was merely incidental, so to speak, or collateral to the main service in which Captain Harvey himself engaged personally and with the company proper. Mr. Nash, as a matter of preference as well as owing to his age, made a personal request of his captain to always keep him with the com- pany, and never send him away from the command on special duty when this could possibly be avoided. This request Captain Harvey remembered and generally complied with. Captain Harvey always kept together as many of his command as possible, generally about thirty, and always in perfect fighting trim, ready to move together in a body on a moment's notice, as emergencies required. His program was to reconnoiter every position possible, and every force of the enemy moving or operating within range, never halting until he struck it, fighting whenever and wherever necessary. He moved very rapidly and would often strike a large command front, flank and rear in less than twenty-four hours, and be able to report to the nearest brigade or division commander the strength of the enemy's cavalry and infantry, supply wagons, ambulances, artillery and the name of the commanding officer, his objective point, etc. Mr. Nash was almost constantly with Captain Harvey during these expeditions and most of the time one of the non-commissioned officers, he not only saw but participated in much of this hazardous service. Though not the first sergeant, he often acted in that capacity, which position in any company, and especially in a company like this, is one of great trust and responsibility. In Georgia one of the special duties of Captain Harvey was to cut off Sherman's supply trains and impede in every way possible his trans- portation and means of communication. In this he was so successful that General Sherman found it necessary at one time to detail ten thousand men to look after his lines of communi- cation, guard his supply trains, depots, railroad bridges, etc. Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, in his narrative, speaks very highly of the operations of Captain Harvey in the rear and on the flanks of Sherman's army in Georgia. General Sherman himself compares Harvey's scouts to "a nest of yellow jackets continually buzzing about my trains, and stinging severely when I attempted to drive them away." Gen. Stephen D. Lee, very high authority, says, speak- ing of this command: "They were everywhere conspicuous for activity, enterprise, persistence and intrepidity." In many instances no account was kept of the enemy killed and captured by Harvey's scouts, and those occasionally detailed to act under Captain Harvey's orders, EE

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and especially is this the case as to the time they were following Hood into Tennessee, or pursuing Wilson's command, which left Eastport on its famous raid just before the surrender. The following, however, is believed to be very near the mark: Harvey's charge into Jackson, Miss., killing Colonel Cromwell and capturing twenty-eight of his men, twenty-nine; killed in the fight with infantry at Natchez, Miss., forty; killed and captured in Sherman's campaign to Meridian, one hundred and thirty-eight; killed and captured in Sherman's Georgia compaign, one thousand three hundred; total, one thousand five hundred and seven.

.Most of the foregoing pertaining to the army and the army life of Mr. Nash is taken from a sketch of Harvey's scouts by Col. J. F. H. Claiborne and designed by him as a part of his second volume of Claiborne's History of Mississippi. The second volume, unfortunately, was burnt, and Colonel Claiborne having departed this life, was never issued. The sketch alluded to, however, was published partly in the weekly Clarion, Jackson, Miss., and partly in the East Mississippi Times, Starkville, Miss., and the whole was afterward printed in pamplet form for private distribution. It would be proper, in this connection, to mention the following incidents which further illustrate the soldier life and soldier qualities of the subject of this sketch. In the Georgia campaign he saved in battle the life of John Lorance, who was badly cut with a sabre in a close fight with cavalry. To do this, after the fight was over, he went back to where it took place, passing beyond the Confederate lines. In front of the house where he found Lorance wounded, he captured two mounted Federal soldiers, one belonging to the quartermaster's department, the other a cavalryman. The wounded man had lost his horse in the fight that morning, had been captured by the enemy, and left at this farmhouse, being too badly injured to be moved at that time. Mr. Nash mounted his comrade on one of the captured horses and brought him back into the Confederate lines, had liis wound dressed at his own expense, gave him one of the captured horses and sent him farther on to the rear, Mr. Nash returning to the front. This wound proved so severe that Lorance was never able again for military duty; he lived many years after this and died but recently in Jackson Miss., where his family are supposed to reside at this time. He was also largely instrumental in saving the life of another comrade, Alfred Land (now a practicing lawyer in Shreveport, La.), who was the party already mentioned as shot through and through and bayoneted in the breast, in a charge made by Captain Harvey, with his company of cavalry, on a much superior force of Federal infantry, near Natchez, Miss. These are the facts in connection with this incident: The infantry were routed and driven back inside their breastworks, leaving forty of their number dead on the field. The fight being over, Captain Harvey (who had himself been wounded in the action), supposing he would at once be pursued by an overwhelming force of fresh troops, gave orders to fall back by the road along which the fight had occurred. Land had been wounded in the hottest of the fray, and near the close of the fight and his wounds were supposed to be mortal. Two men were left with him, after the command had gone some little distance, a rear guard being established. They continued to move on in the direction of Washington, a small town a few miles almost east of Natchez, while P. L. Jordan and Mr. Williams (Jordan in a buggy that had been pressed into service, and Williams on horseback) were sent back after Land. Mr. Nash, being with rear guard, as they came along, volunteered to go back also. As they went on it was soon agreed that it would be unsafe and imprudent to go farther with a buggy, so it was deci led that Jordan should stop where he was with the buggy, and that the other two should go on and see if the wounded man could be found. The two rode on for some distance, and over much of the battleground. It was soon evident that Land was not on that part of the field where he had been wounded. The thought here

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occurred to Mr. Nash that Land might be somewhere in the immediate vicinity, and that the place where he would be most likely found was off to the left of the Natchez road, in the woods a few hundred yards from where the fighting ceased. Supposing the two men with the wounded man would have tried to leave the field in that direction, Mr Nash proposed to Mr. Williams that if he would stay in the road and picket well toward Natchez, he would leave the road and go on to the left and in the woods and see if Land could be found. This being agreed, Mr. Nash went forward to attempt what he had volunteered to do. Going down some distance in the direction stated, he called for Land, but no voice replied that he could hear. He then rode still farther forward and still nearer Natchez toward a house in the woods. There he learned that three men had been seen going off in a certain direction; supposing these were the parties, he galloped down in the direction indicated and among some ravines, after calling Land and searching about a little, he found him at last and alone, down in a gully, his horse hitched near by. Mr. Land was deathly pale and to all appearance in a dying condition. Mr. Nash dismounted and tried to get him to mount; this he would make no effort to do, in his helpless condition. He could hardly speak above a whisper. He said he would certainly die, and desired to be left alone. Mr. Nash next brought Mr. Land's horse up and tried to lift Land so he could mount, but found this to be impossible. Mr. Nash's pony was small and much lower than the horse; Land was also lying or reclining upon the side of the gully. Taking in the situation he led his pony down on the lower side, or bottom of the gully, having thus the advantage of the ground, and with all the strength possible, and with some little effort on the part of the wounded man, he was thus enabled to lift him in the saddle. Land clasped the front of the sadle; he could not or did not take the reins so as to guide the horse. Mr. Nash, then mounting Land's horse and taking his pony's reins in hand, started back, riding Land's horse and leading his pony, which Land was now riding. He soon reached Mr. Williams, next the buggy, in which, by the side of Jordan, Land was placed, they driving off in the direction Captain Harvey had gone with his command. This done Mr. Nash again took his place with the rear guard. When Mr. Nash was wounded, as before stated, he received a sixty days fourlough; the day it expired he was back with the company, and though his wound troubled him at times, he served constantly, and on active duty until the close of the war. Mr. Nash was in Columbus, Ga., when it was heard that the army in Virginia had surrendered; Captain Harvey having followed to this point Wilsou's raid from Eastport, Miss. The company after the death of Captain Harvey, who was killed in Columbus, Ga., turned and made its way with some difficulty back to Gainesville Ala., to Gen. W. H. Jackson's division of cavalry, to which Harvey's scouts belonged. The cavalry was then being paroled every day. Mr. Nash, with others of the company, con- cluded they would not surrender, but would make their way to the Mississippi river, cross over and join the army on the other side. Each of this party was to go home, spend a few days and all meet near Rodney, on the river, on June 4, then only a few days off. Mr. Nash having then no home, his father having died while he was in the army, and the family having broken up housekeeping, spent the few days allowed him with relatives, near Gainesville, Ala., but left in time to reach the Mississippi river on the evening of June 3, the day before the time agreed upon to meet. There he learned, for the first time, that the army on the other side had also surrendered. After resting himself and his horse a day or so, he went back some fifteen or twenty miles to Port Gibson, Miss., and surrendered, being paroled by the Federal officer in command of that post. He then started back again across the state of Mississippi, to Gainesville, Ala.

At the surrender Mr. Nash was but a few days past eighteen. Owing to the results of

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the war, Southern families, as a general rule, at that time had but little available means. Greatly desiring to complete his education, he started to school, for the first six or eight months attending the common schools of the country and then entering the University of Mississippi, first in the literary and then in the law department. He holds a certificate from the univer- sity, showing that at the time he entered the law class he was entitled to graduation in all the studies finished anterior to the senior year. Owing to limited means, and in order the sooner to be able to help his younger brothers and sisters he was compelled, in the fall of 1867, to leave the senior class in the literary department. This he regretted very much, being a regular member in good standing in the class of 1868, and all its members being among his nearest and dearest friends. Having studied law during two vacations under Hon. C. F. Miller, of Starkville, Miss., a first-class lawyer and a man of sterling worth and integrity, he was in the fall of 1867 enabled, on a strict examination, to enter (in everything except real estate) the senior law class of the University of Mississippi, under Hon. L. Q. C. Lamar. The jun- ior class then being in real estate, he concluded to try and graduate the following commence- ment. For some four months he carried on both the junior and senior law studies, reciting with the juniors in the morning and the seniors in the evening. Later on he caught up with the regular senior class, leaving the juniors and becoming a regular senior about the first of January, 1868, graduating with his class the following June. This was at a time when the law course (as a general rule) required two years. While at the university, during the last six months of his second year, and during the whole of the last year, he labored under great financial embarrassment. Along with many other Mississippi boys, supposed to be in the same situation, in order to economize their means and be enabled to complete their education, they boarded themselves and thus reduced the cost of living to a minimum. They did their own marketing, made their own fires, cut their own wood, did their own cooking, washed their own dishes, etc. From such and similar action on the part of certain boys at the University of Mississippi, arose at that institution the system called " batching," Mr. Nash being among the first to "batch," by which many young men of limited means were enabled to gain a first-class education. He not only boarded himself in the manner stated, but sought, and during the greater part of the time he was in the law department, after he had become a regular senior, served in a position in the clerk's office of the United States district court at Oxford, Miss., where he worked until about two o'clock in the afternoon and then went and recited with the law class; thus most of the day was consumed; he did most of his study- ing at night .* It might be said at this point that Colonol Lamar trusted Mr. Nash for his tuition while a student in the law class, as well as loaned him, from his private library, the necessary law books; and thus he was enabled to pursue his studies to advantage. Again, when he left Oxford to purchase his first law books, he received a loan of $50 from Mrs. A. M. Quinche, the wife of one of the professors, and a noble Christian woman, and thus he was enabled to begin his law practice. Mr. Nash began the practice of law in Starkville, Miss., in the fall of 1868, still owing some $300 money borrowed to complete his education and to begin his law practice. As soon as possible, and out of the first money he made, he paid his indebtedness. After that he assisted largely in the education of his brothers and sisters, advancing freely of his own means as he accumulated, trusting them to refund the same when able. The children owned some wild lands, yet it was not available, there being no market for such lands at that time. He greatly assisted two of his brothers in securing their education, one graduating at the dental college in Baltimore, Md., the other at one of the

*The above position he secured through the influence of Hon. R. A. Hill, United States judge. and George R. Hill, one of his classmates.

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medical schools in Louisville, Ky. Two sisters owe their education largely to his assistance, and both graduated at first-class female colleges. After practicing law for several years he took a regular commercial course, graduating on the 19th day of August, A. D. 1873, at Eastman's National Business college, Poughkeepsie, N. Y. Mr. Nash has been a practitioner before the supreme court of " ississippi for many years. In Washington, D. C., on January 19, 1881, on motion of Hon. Charles Devens, attorney general of the United States, he was duly admitted and qualified as an attorney and counsellor of the supreme court of the United States.

In 1874, Mr. Nash and Miss Alice Ervin were married. They have two children, Harry and Evie, Harry being the elder. The father of Mrs. Nash, Mr. James W. Ervin, was for a long time a large planter in the eastern portion of Oktibbeha county, Miss. Mr. Ervin belongs to a family from which has sprung some of the best citizens in Mississippi, many of whom have held important positions. Her father was among the first settlers of east Mississippi, was a leading citizen, a captain in the Confederate service, and for many years before his death a ruling elder in the Presbyterian church. After the war he moved to Pleasant Ridge, Ala., where he died a few years since at a ripe old age. Mrs. Ann C. Ervin (form- erly Miss Ann Jennings) was the mother of Mrs. Nash; she died when Mrs. Nash was about three years old, regretted and beloved by all who knew her; she was a noble, kind-hearted Christian women. Shortly after Mr. Nash began the practice of law he received unsolicited the appointment of county attorney of Oktibbeha county, Miss. This position he resigned in a short time, preferring to follow his general practice. In 1875, "the year de white folks riz," he was elected district attorney. The district composed then the counties of Clay, Lowndes, Noxubee, Oktibbeha, and Winston. This office he held until 1880. In 1884, with Hon. J. S. Montgomery, he was elected to represent Oktibbeha county in the lower branch of the state legislature, in which capacity he served two years. In the legislature of 1884 he took an active part in all important legislation, and especially in the passage of the bill establishing the Industrial Institute and College for the White Girls of Mississippi. He labored faithfully for the passage of this bill from the time it came from the senate until it became a law a month or more thereafter. This bill passed the house of representatives at the night session, Wednesday, March 5, 1884, by a close vote of forty-five to forty-three. The speech made by Mr. Nash that night in support of the bill was printed and largely cir- culated over the state. Mr. Nash is a member of the Baptist church, and has always been liberal in his religious views. His father's family are generally Baptists ; one of his father's brothers, Rev. O. L. Nash, was a Methodist minister, however, and as such, quite distin- guished in the early days of Mississippi. His mother's family are generally Methodist; she however, after her marriage connected herself with the Baptist church, both father and mother being members of that church at their death. Mr. Nash's wife's family are Presbyterians, though his wife since their marriage has connected herself with the Baptist church. Two of his sisters are members of the Christian church. His stepmother, his father having mar- ried twice, and a half-sister are members of the Methodist church. Such facts tend to make most persons conservative and liberal in their religious views. Among several other fraternal, charitable and benevolent societies Mr. Nash belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows in the grand lodge of Mississippi, and of this order he was in 1888 elected grand warden, in 1889, deputy grand master, and in 1890, he was elected grand master. At the expiration of his term as such, the grand lodge held in Meridian in May, 1891, unanimously passed a resolution most complimentary to Mr. Nash. Since Mr. Nash began the practice of law, not to mention many political speeches delivered in active and heated county, district

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Biographical and historical memoirs of Mississippi, embracing an authentic and comprehensive account of the chief events in the history of the state and a record of the lives of many of the most worthy and illustrious families and individuals, Vol. II, Part 76

Author: Goodspeed Brothers Publication date: 1891 Publisher: Chicago, Goodspeed Number of Pages: 1314

Author: Goodspeed Brothers
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Chicago, Goodspeed
Number of Pages: 1314