The Notorious "Bull" Nelson: Murdered Civil War General

“March of Their Life”

79 “March of Their Life” [7] Soon after Don Carlos Buell assumed command of the Army of the Ohio at Louisville, a letter published in the Covington Journal advised, “All eyes are turned to the impending battle in Kentucky. Gen. Buell will be provided with all the men he can use, and will have everything at his command to make his army irresistible. His success or failure is regarded as the turning point of the crisis of the Union. If he fails, all is lost; if he succeeds, the Union is saved. So [it now appears that] Gen. McClellan has already become a secondary character in the war.”1 A correspondent for the Cincinnati Gazette at Camp Nolin declared the only real obstacle Buell faced in Kentucky was a force of eighteen to thirty-five thousand Confederates at Bowling Green. This armchair general surmised that Buell could easily move against Nashville and/or seize the Cumberland Gap and take control of the East Tennessee & Lynchburg Railroad. He concluded by asking for “our new general” to simply concentrate his forces or move aggressively against the enemy as he should.2 On December 2, 1861, Buell answered the first part of that challenge by organizing the seventy thousand men of the Army of the Ohio into five divisions and placing Nelson in command of the Fourth Division. On December 10, Nelson was about to march those men to a training site north of the Green River, when he spotted a disruptive drunken soldier. Nelson went after the man with a reckless abandon that made the tipsy volunteer think his commander was also “pretty drunk.” The mischievous soldier coyly asked Nelson, “‘perhaps you would like to take one yourself’ . . . and pulling out his flask of whiskey,[he] says, ‘help yourself, I aint proud.’” Nelson did not want to unleash his wrath in front of the huge crowd gathered along Bardstown road and he discreetly withheld it for another time. As the troops started forward several Negroes joined behind Col. William B. Hazen’s Forty-first Regiment 80 “March of Their Life” Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Nelson promptly ordered all the followers returned when one owner complained that his slave had been wrongly encouraged to follow the boys in blue.3 That evening the column went into bivouac along the outskirts of Bardstown Junction (Shepherdsville), and several members of the Twenty-fourth Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry used the opportunity to slip away to buy some “apple-jack.” Hours later, the young volunteers tried to reenter the line, and the corporal of the guard, Alonzo C. Pocock, yelled out, “Halt! Who goes there?” Pocock received no answer, so he fired a cautionary shot in the air to encourage a response. Pvt. Michael Connell took that as a direct assault, and he fired four or five shots at Pocock. The entire regiment went on line, Connell was soon under arrest, and Nelson ordered a general court-martial to convene at the earliest possible date.4 Nelson reached the north side of New Haven on Friday, December 13, 1861, and he was promptly handed a wire from Buell that told him to have his troops ready to support Brig. Gen. Alexander McCook’s Second Division “at the earliest possible moment.” Nelson pushed on to White City, and from there he marched south along a cobblestone roadway (Rt. 470) for about three miles. West Point Shepherdsville Bardstown Junction Lebanon Junction Bardstown Boston New Haven Springfield Elizabethtown Hodgenville Camp Wickliffe Lebanon Bowling Green Perryville Danville Stanford Lancaster Camp Dick Robinson Harrodsburg Salvisa Nicholasville Versailles LEXINGTON Georgetown Frankfort Shelbyville LOUISVILLE U.S. Headquarters West Point Shepherdsville Bardstown Junction Lebanon Junction Bardstown Boston New Haven Springfield Elizabethtown Hodgenville Camp Wickliffe Lebanon Perryville Danville Stanford Lancaster Camp Dick Robinson Harrodsburg Salvisa Nicholasville Versailles LEXINGTON Georgetown Frankfort Shelbyville LOUISVILLE U.S. Headquarters K e n t u c k y R . Sa l t R . Ro l l i n g F ork Nolin R. O H IO RIVER K e n t u c k y R . Sa l t R . Ro l l i n g F ork Nolin R. O H IO RIVER M ULD R A U G H ’ S HILL M ULD R A U G H ’ S HILL L . F . R . R F. & L. R. R L . F . R . R F. & L. R. R INDIANA INDIANA 0 10 20 30 Miles 0 10 20 30 Miles Seat of War in Kentucky Seat of War in Kentucky Map 4. The Seat of War...