February 24, 1865. On March 3d, he was exchanged and ordered to report west of the Mississippi in thirty days, but before the expiration of that time, Richmond had fallen, and he never rejoined his command, as it was soon afterward disbanded. He then resumed work as a farmer in his native county, and presently took up again the duties of deputy sheriff, which he discharged until 1868. In 1870 he was appointed deputy clerk of the county, and after serving as such until 1887, he was chosen clerk, an office he still holds by successive re-elections. He has also represented the county in the State assembly by election, in 1877, and is a communicant of the Primitive Baptist church. On March 26, 1861, he was married to Elizabeth, daughter of Judge John C. Weedan, of Prince William county, and they have five children: Lizzie, born January 15, 1862; Joseph H., born 1866; James E., born 1868; Effie, born 1870; Paul, born 1873.
Hugh Thomas Nelson, M. D., now a distinguished physician of Virginia, was privileged as a youth to be prominently associated with the great war for Southern independence. He was born at Cloverfield, Albemarle county, Va., in 1845, the son of Dr. Robert W. and Virginia L. Nelson, and entered the military service in July, 1862, just after the successful campaign before Richmond. He was at first a private in the Morris artillery of Hanover county, but subsequently was on detached duty at the headquarters of the chief of artillery through the campaigns in Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, until the capture of his battery at the "bloody angle," near Spottsylvania Court House. He was then transferred to Troop E, Fourth regiment of cavalry, Fitzhugh Lee's brigade. During his cavalry service he had two horses shot under him, one at Cold Harbor and one at Rude's hill, in the valley. After an illness in hospital he was detailed as a courier for General Breckinridge, and went with him to South Carolina. While serving as a courier it became his duty to carry to President Davis at Danville, the first tidings of the surrender of the army of Northern Virginia. He was present without the building where the last cabinet meeting of the Confederate States government was held. Returning to Virginia in June, 1865, he was paroled at Richmond, and after teaching school for several years, he was graduated in medicine at the university of Virginia, in 1875. He practiced his profession in Halifax county, and then removed to Charlottesville, where he has resided since 1881, enjoying a large practice. For four years he was secretary of the medical examining board of the State, and then president of that body, an honor which he resigned to become instructor in clinical surgery at the university of Virginia.
Colonel William Nelson was a noted artillery officer in the army of Northern Virginia, and among the many splendid organizations none were more noted than Nelson's battalion. The officer from whom it received its name entered the war as captain of a Virginia battery and had so proved his worth that, in his report of the battle of Seven Pines, D. H. Hill mentions him as worthy to stand among the best of his artillery officers. During the Seven Days he commanded an artillery battalion with the rank of major. Throughout that trying ordeal and the campaigns that followed in Virginia and Maryland, he continued to serve with distinction.
