William Henry Nash

Trained as a gilder, he enlisted in New York City on 1 July 1852 and mustered as a Private in Battery B of the 3rd United States Artillery. He served in California, where he married in 1854, was promoted to Sergeant, and fought in Oregon, where he was wounded in action against Indians. He was discharged on a pension certificate at Benicia Barracks, CA on 1 December 1856, then First Sergeant, and was back in New York City by 1857.

He enrolled in Washington, DC on 6 March 1862 and mustered as First Lieutenant of Company B, First United States Sharpshooters on 8 March.

He led his men in Maryland and his "company constituted the larger part of the body of skirmishers and [he] was most instrumental in urging the men to attempt the crossing" at Shepherdstown on 19 September 1862. On the 20th

Lieut. Nash, of Company B, having called for volunteers to cross the river and bring in the wounded, Company B went entire ...

He was promoted to Captain of Company K on 10 January 1863 and transferred as Captain and Assistant Inspector General (AIG) to the 1st Brigade, 3rd Division, 2nd Corps (Col. T.W. Egan) on 30 April 1864. He was captured in the Wilderness, VA on 6 May 1864 and was a prisoner at Macon, GA and Columbia, SC. He was exchanged, date not found, and mustered out on 14 March 1865.

He joined the New York City Fire Department (NYFD) in 1868 and was Foreman of Engine 28 in 1869, but was still making a living as a gilder there in 1870. By 1872 he was Assistant Engineer, and he was appointed Chief of the 4th Battalion, NYFD by 1874. He died in September 1875 at age 43, in a fall from a height of 98 feet, while demonstrating an aerial ladder.

His service from Phisterer,1 Stevens,2 quoted about Nash on 20 September, the Registers,3 and his New York Muster Roll abstract, online from fold3. His role on 19 September from Captain Isler's report, quoted above. Personal details from J. Frank Kernan's Reminiscences of the Old Fire Laddies and Volunteer Fire Departments of New York City and Brooklyn ... (1885), which has his birth in New York City, family genealogists, and the US Census of 1870. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

He married Harriet O'Brien (1839-1906) in May 1854 and they had 3 children. She's buried with him at Green-Wood.

See more about Nash's history with the NYFD and his death in a post by Green-Wood historian Jeff Richman, also my guide to Kernan's Reminiscences and source of his picture, from a CDV of unknown provenance.

06/18/1832; Bridgwater, ENGLAND

09/14/1875; New York City, NY; burial in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, NY