James Cooper Nisbet

He moved to Dade County with his brother John sometime after graduating from Oglethorpe to run a 3,000-acre farm (possibly owned by his father). In 1861 he organized a company of troops, the "Silver Grays", which became Company H of the 21st Georgia Infantry - Nisbet was elected Captain (2 July 1861). He was wounded in action at Cold Harbor 26 June 1862.

He relieved the wounded Major Glover in command of the regiment at Sharpsburg on 17 September as senior Captain on the field. He was himself wounded in action there.

He resigned his commission in the 21st Infantry 11 August 1863, and in mid-1863 he and Captain A. S. Hamilton organized the 66th Georgia Regiment and Nisbet was elected Colonel (8 October 1863). He was captured near Atlanta at Decatur, Georgia on 22 July 1864 and was imprisoned on Johnson's Island, Ohio until released 25 July 1865 at War's end.

He returned to Dade County and later served in the Georgia Legislature and the State Constitutional Convention (1877) of which he was Secretary. He wrote a memoir of his War service, Four Years on the Firing Line, Chattanooga: Imperial Press, 1915. [also: Edited by Bell Irvin Wiley. Jackson, Tenn.: McCowat-Mercer Press, 1963.]

Source: Thomas, Henry W. , History of the Doles-Cook Brigade Army of Northern Virginia, C.S.A., Atlanta: Franklin Printing and Publishing Company, 1903 - some biographical details and photograph also posted online by Carla Cegielski on RootsWeb;
A biographical sketch from the Nesbitt/Nisbet Society; and
Genealogical data online from RootsWeb. Thanks also to Great-grandnephew W. LeConte for helping us correctly locate Decatur, site of the Captain's capture, near Atlanta.

Note: His last name is spelled "Nisbit" in some documentation.

9/26/1839; Macon, GA

5/30/1917; Chattanooga, TN; burial in Confederate Cemetery, Chattanooga, TN