Brig. Gen. Allison Nelson, CSA, 9th Mayor of Atlanta

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allison_Nelson

Allison Nelson (March 11, 1822 – October 7, 1862) was the ninth mayor of Atlanta, serving from January until July 1855, when he resigned from office. He died of disease in Prairie County (present-day Lonoke County), Arkansas, during the American Civil War.

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Allison Nelson, legislator and Confederate army officer, was born on March 11, 1822, in Fulton County, Georgia. During the Mexican War he recruited and led a volunteer company. He was trained as a lawyer and elected in 1848 to the Georgia legislature, where he served one term. He also served as mayor of Atlanta in 1855.

During the Cuban war for independence Nelson served as a brigadier general under Gen. Narciso López. Nelson was in Kansas during the "border troubles" but moved to Meridian, Texas, in 1856. He also owned a house in Waco. For the next four years he was engaged in Indian affairs. He served under Lawrence S. Ross as an agent but also distinguished himself as an Indian fighter with a captain's commission from Governor Hardin R. Runnels. Nelson was elected to the Texas state legislature in 1859 and to the Secession Convention in 1861.

At the outbreak of the Civil War he raised and was elected to command the Tenth Texas Infantry regiment, which saw early service in Arkansas under Gen. Thomas C. Hindman. On the recommendation of Gen. Theophilus H. Holmes Nelson was promoted to brigadier general, to rank from September 12, 1862, and was assigned to the command of the Second Division of Holmes's army in Arkansas, which consisted of his own and George M. Flournoy's brigades. Nelson fell ill of typhoid, or "camp fever," on September 27, however, and died near Austin, Arkansas, on October 7, 1862. "He is an irreplaceable loss to me," wrote General Holmes. Nelson was buried in Little Rock. Camp Nelson, near Austin, Arkansas, was named in his honor. He was survived by a widow and three children.

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Allison Nelson (March 11, 1822 – October 7, 1862) was the ninth mayor of Atlanta, Georgia, as well as a brigadier general in the Confederate army during the American Civil War.

His father, John B. Nelson, who ran Nelson's Ferry across the Chattahoochee River, was an early DeKalb County settler who was murdered in 1825, when Allison was three years old, by John W. Davis.

During the Mexican-American War, Captain Nelson served with another future mayor, Cicero C. Hammock, as well as the father of mayor John B. Goodwin – Private Williamson H. Goodwin – in the Kennesaw Rangers. Later he became a brigadier general under General Narciso López, attempting to free Cuba.

In a close election for mayor, Nelson, running as a Democrat, defeated the Know Nothing candidate, Ira O. McDaniel, but resigned in July when the city council reduced a fine he had levied on two young men for destroying city property, thus leaving John Glen as acting mayor.

Nelson left for Kansas during the border disputes, then moved to Meridian, Texas, where he was involved with Indian affairs, serving under Lawrence Ross and in 1860 was elected to the state legislature. During the American Civil War he served as a brigadier general in the Confederate army until he took sick in September 1862 and died a month later. He was buried in Little Rock, Arkansas.

'Buried in Mount Holly Cemetery, Little Rock, Arkansas'