William Cowper Nelson

From Holly Springs, he left school at age 20 and enlisted in Company B, 9 Mississippi Infantry in May 1861. He served with them until December 1861. In March 1862 he enlisted in Company G, 17th Infantry.

He was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant in January 1863. He served as Ordnance Officer in Carnot Posey's Brigade.

Will survived the war only to return to Holly Springs to find his father had been murdered by marauding soldiers. In 1867 he married Miss Mary Lou Armistead in Richmond, VA. The family moved several times due primarily to his career as an inspector of insurance underwriters. They lived in Nashville; New Orleans; Atlanta; and Louisville, Kentucky.

Basic information from notes accompanying his letters in The Hour of Our Nation's Agony: The Civil War Letters of Lt. William Cowper ..., edited by Jennifer W. Ford (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2007); his photo is from the cover of that volume. Some details from the notes with the collection of his original letters, at the University of Mississippi [finding aid]. Service dates from Rowland1.

1841

07/03/1904