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Nelson, William (Soldier was born Sept)

soldier, was born Sept. 27, 1824, in Maysville, Ky. In 1840 he graduated from the Naval academy of Annapolis, Md., and as a midshipman, his first duty was in the sloop-of-war Yorktown. He then served on various vessels, and in 1855 was promoted to a lieutenancy, and in 1857 joined in the expedition of Commodore Perry to China and Japan. He has been given the credit of keeping Kentucky in the union; saved her seventy-five thousand volunteers to teers to the national flag; spared the border the terrible shock of contending armies, and transferred the theater of war hundreds of miles southward to the banks of the Cumberland and the Tennessee. He was commissioned brigadiergeneral of volunteers, and at the time of his death held the rank of lieutenant-commander. He was shot on Sept. 29, 1862, by Gen. Davis.