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VITAL STATISTICS
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BORN: 1834 in Donaldsonville, LA.
DIED: 1912 near Thibodeaux, LA.
CAMPAIGNS: First Bull Run, Shenandoah Valley, and Chancellorsville.
HIGHEST RANK ACHIEVED: Brigadier General
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BIOGRAPHY
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| Francis Redding Tillou Nicholls was born on August 20, 1834, in Donaldsonville, Louisiana. He graduated from West Point in 1855, and served for one year. He resigned his commission and went to the University of Louisiana to study law. Nicholls practiced law in Napoleonville until the Civil War. After joining the Confederate forces in 1861, he took part in the First Battle of Bull Run, then in the Shenandoah Valley Campaign. In May of 1862, he was wounded at Winchester, and had to have his left arm amputated. On October 14, 1862, he was promoted to brigadier general. Commanding the District of Lynchburg until 1863, he later led a brigade in the Chancellorsville Campaign. During that campaign, his left foot was ripped off by a shell, and he was unable to return to combat service. Nicholls was transferred to the Trans-Mississippi Department to direct the Volunteer and Conscript Bureau until the end of the war. After the Civil War ended, he went back to practicing law. he ran for governor in 1876, and refused to accept a defeat by his republican opponent. The state had two administrations until the federal government recognized Nicholls' administration as the legitimate one. He was reelected in 1888, then appointed to the Louisiana Supreme Court in 1892. Nicholls died on his plantation near Thibodeaux, Louisiana, on January 4, 1912. |
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