Assistant Inspector General.
Captain E. T. Nicholson, of
Halifax, N. C., was the only
Assistant Inspector General this brigade ever had. He was a student in the
University of
North Carolina at the outbreak of hostilities, but left that institution from a sense of duty, and entered the North Carolina Cavalry as a private.
He was subsequently elected
Second Lieutenant Company E, Thirty-seventh North Carolina Troops, and on my recommendation he was appointed our Brigade Inspector.
When that office was abolished he was ordered to
Johnson's North Carolina Brigade as
[
210]
its
Assistant Adjutant-General, and soon after lost his life in the attack on
Fort Stedman, while gallantly bearing the colors of one of his regiments far in advance of the general line.
When I was arrested, after the war, and taken to
Fortress Monroe, the
provost marshal of that place told me that he was in
Fort Stedman at that time, that he witnessed
Nicholson's great gallantry, and that when he fell it was generally remarked by the
Federal officers that it was a pity to kill such a brave man. The
Captain also behaved with conspicuous gallantry in the fight at
Jones's farm.
He was a most excellent officer, a noble-hearted, Christian gentleman, and was universally beloved.
