Garret Smith Nichols

A Baptist clergyman's son, in 1860 he was a 20 year old school teacher at Port Providence in Montgomery County, PA. He enlisted and mustered on 16 September 1861 in Philadelphia as a Private in Company F, 88th Pennsylvania Infantry. He transferred to Company E on 1 January 1862.

He was wounded in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862.

He was appointed 2nd Lieutenant on 18 March 1863 and promoted to First Lieutenant 3 days later. He was discharged on 3 October 1864 for wounds received in the Wilderness, VA in May.

By 1870 he was in the "conveyances" (streetcars, trains) business in Schuylkill Township in Chester County, PA. In 1880 he was back in Montgomery County, PA, by then a foreman for the Pennsylvania Railroad living in Upper Providence Township. He was a watchman for the railroad there by 1900, and a guard in a state park in 1910, then age 70, living with his youngest, daughter Breta (Brown) and her family in Upper Providence.

His service from Bates1 and the Card File.2 Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860-1910. His gravesite is on Findagrave. His picture from a photograph at the Library of Congress.

He married Mary E Rossiter (1840-1892) in June 1869 and they had 5 children.

10/12/1839; Chester County, PA

04/28/1916; burial in Green Tree Church of the Brethren Cemetery, Oaks, PA