SOUTH-CENTRAL-KENTUCKY-L Archives

From: Sandi Gorin <>
Subject: NELSON
Date: Mon, 09 Aug 2004 19:29:08 -0500

Our friend, Bill Utterback, gave me permission to post to these lists and
thought you might enjoy reading this story. It was taken from Lydia Kennedy
Bond's little book "Memories & Reveries. She resided in Anderson Co KY but
her extended area covered more of the state.

Today's selection is entitled "Fiddlin' Tom", and is a part of a longer
piece on life in the War Between the States period. Ironically, Fiddlin'
Tom - Thomas Jefferson Nelson - is a distant relative of mine, as well. (of
Bill Utterback).

Fiddlin' Tom -"Memories & Reveries"
Lydia
Kennedy Bond

One of our more colorful relatives was Thomas Jefterson Nelson, whose
checkered career is interesting and also amusing. This remote cousin of my
grandchildren's managed to fight during the
War Between the States, under both the Southern Confederacy and in the Army
of the North, finally finishing up his military "career" in the Northern
Army. Getting himself safely settled on the United States pension roll
after having once deserted that army is a mystery that Thomas Jefferson
Nelson never explained and never discussed. He enlisted in the Army of the
North at the age of 16. He and fifteen other boys deserted after they had
been in the service but a short time at Camp Morton, Indianapolis, Indiana.
This was a recruiting camp as well as a prison pen where soldiers of the
South were imprisoned. Thomas Jefferson is said to have led in the revolt
and the desertion of that covey of boys. He found fault with their captain.
He objected to the treatment of the men under the captain. Thomas filed his
complaint personally with the captain, and the latter resented his
insolence, and undertook to punish him without success and the young Thomas
started a wholesale desertion. This is about as deeply as most sixteen
year-old boys would feel in a like situation. Reminds me of hearing that
during the late World War [WWI] there were many "boys" who bitterly
resented the personal treatment received from their officers.

But to return to our obstreperous cousin, we find that he and fifteen boys
deserted during the night and the next morning fourteen of them returned to
Camp Morton. But not so with Thomas Jefferson and his companion Frank
Andrews. They walked thirty miles which lay between Indianapolis and their
home in the country near Jamestown, Indiana. These youngsters remained at
the home of John Hogan Nelson, the father of Thomas Jefferson, the
remainder of the day. That night they attended a dance at Jamestown,
Indiana. When the dance was over they took to the high road and headed
south. In Kentucky these two boys joined a company of Gray cavalrymen. They
stayed in that service one year when they were honorably discharged. They
were discharged in Missouri; then Thomas and his companion in arms, Frank,
hied themselves, penniless, to the home of the former's uncle, Jesse
Nelson, near Garden City, Missouri. There they laid aside the Confederate
grey and donned civilian clothes. After getting a much needed rest, they
enlisted again in the Army of the North. Again they selected the cavalry.
Their enlistment was at Hannibal, Missouri, in 1863. They were mustered out
of the service of the Union at New Orleans, July 27, 1865 and returned to
their homes in Boone county, Indiana.

Thomas Jefferson Nelson was affectionately known among his Indiana cousins
as "Fiddlin' Tom." He was a master hand with the bow and strings and much
beloved. In 1926, he was the last surviving
member of the family of Hon. John Hogan Nelson and Mary Howser. John Hogan
Nelson died at his farm in Boone county, Indiana, in 1869 - five years
after "Fiddlin' Tom" returned from a war in which he had served under both
flags.
~~~~~~~
[John Hogan Nelson was born in 1782 in Washington Co., TN. He married in
Barren Co., KY and died, as noted in Mrs. Bond's narrative, in Boone Co.,
IN. He was the son of John Nelson and Bathsheba Hogan.]
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


Colonel Sandi Gorin
SCKY Links: http://www.public.asu.edu/~moore/Gorin.html
Sandi's Puzzlers:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~gensoup/gorin/puz.html
Gorin Publishing: http://ggpublishing.tripod.com/

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• NELSON by Sandi Gorin <>