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Confederate (CSA)

Lieutenant Colonel

Reuben Battle Nisbet

(1830 - 1901)

Home State: Georgia

Education: Oglethorpe College, Medical College of Georgia

Command Billet: Commanding Regiment

Branch of Service: Infantry

Unit: 3rd Georgia Infantry

Before Sharpsburg

A physician in Macon, then Eatonton, GA, he was elected the first Captain of Company B, 3rd Georgia Infantry on 26 April 1861. He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in December 1862 to rank from 1 July 1862 (shown here at that rank). He was wounded at Malvern Hill, VA on 1 July 1862.

On the Campaign

He was wounded again, thought mortally at Sharpsburg, in the combat in the Sunken Road, and taken prisoner by men of the 132nd Pennsylvania, according to their after-action report.

The rest of the War

He was taken off the field and sent to Baltimore [Hagerstown], where, by permission of the officer in charge of the ambulances containing the wounded prisoners, he was taken to the private residence of Col. Robt. Brent, a prominent lawyer of that city; furnished the best medical attention, and tenderly nursed back to health by the daughters of Colonel Brent. Col. Nisbet was finally exchanged, returned to his Regiment, and was wounded again.
He was detailed away to Augusta, GA on account of wounds 4 May 1864, and retired on disability on the 16th of that month. He served a term in the Georgia State Senate in 1864.

After the War

He returned to his medical practice in Eatonton and also farmed there.

References & notes

Basic information above from Henderson1: her Roster for the 3rd Georgia is transcribed online at the 3rd Georgia site. Additional biographical details from Krick2, thanks to Jenny Goellnitz (AP Hill site). The quote above by his cousin James C. Nisbet from his memoir Four Years on the Firing Line (1915). Thanks to Laura Elliott [via Civil War Talk] for the pointer to that quote and to the Transactions of the Medical Association of Georgia (1901), source of more bio information. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

Birth

02/06/1830; Madison County, GA

Death

4/10/1901; Eatonton, GA; burial in Pine Grove Cemetery, Eatonton, GA

Notes

1   Henderson, Lilian, compiler, Roster of the Confederate Soldiers of Georgia, 1861-1865, 6 vols., Hapeville (GA): Longino & Porter, 1959-1964  [AotW citation 536]

2   Krick, Robert K., Lee's Colonels: A Biographical Register of the Field Officers of the Army of Northern Virginia, Dayton (Oh): Morningside Press, 1979  [AotW citation 537]