Andersonville anguish: 'Hand of God ... laid heavily upon me'

16th Connecticut Private Emerson Nichols' gravestone at Andersonville (Ga.) National Cemetery. 

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On a gloomy afternoon in Andersonville, Ga., I walked the grounds of the national cemetery, a place of immense sadness. It reminded me of a long-ago visit to the German World War II concentration camp at Dachau, where one almost expects the earth to open up and groan.

An angel figure hovers over bas-relief figures of Union prisoners 
on the huge plaque on the New York monument.
(CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE)

In the national cemetery, the pearl-white gravestones for nearly 13,000 Union POWs — mostly victims of disease at the notorious Confederate prison camp nearby — are grouped closely together. Row upon staggering row of markers stretch across the landscape.

Throughout the vast, well-kept grounds, memorials honor Federal dead  On a massive plaque on the New York monument, certainly a work of art, a glorious figure of an angel hovers over bas-relief figures of two prisoners — one looking hopeful, the other hopeless. "Death before dishonor," an inscription on the Iowa memorial reads. On the Illinois monument nearby, a statue of a doleful Union officer stands next to a slab of granite inscribed with that magnificent quote from Lincoln’s first inaugural address:

“The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearth-stone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.“

The monument honoring the 258 Connecticut dead is beautiful in its simplicity: A 7-foot bronze figure of a young soldier, kepi in hand, stands atop a granite pedestal. ”Andersonville Boy,” as the statue is known, reminded me of one of the reasons for my trip: Emerson A. Nichols of Company G of the 16th Connecticut. A friend suggested I visit his grave.

"Andersonville Boy" is featured on the Connecticut monument at Andersonville (Ga.) National Cemetery.

A private from Bristol, Conn., Nichols rests in red Georgia clay, Grave No. 5044, between soldiers from Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. He  enlisted six days before Christmas in 1863. In April 1864, he was captured at Plymouth, N.C., with most of the rest of his regiment and eventually shipped by train to Andersonville. On Aug. 8, 1864, a grievously ill Nichols was carried from the prison stockade a short distance to the camp hospital. He was so far gone he couldn't speak. He died later that day.

Emerson was only 16.

My God, 16 years old. 

In a letter to the Pension Bureau in July 1865, Emerson’s mother Candace told of multiple family tragedies. Her husband William died in April 1861, shortly before the war began. In the previous six years, Candace said she had also lost another son and two grandchildren. A son-in-law, too. A Union soldier, he was shot and mortally wounded while on picket duty in Louisiana.

"I feel that the hand of God has been laid heavily upon me," the widow wrote.

Candace Nichols, whose pension request was approved at the standard $8 a month, died in 1904. Whether or not she ever visited her son's grave in Georgia is unknown.

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MRS. NICHOLS' LETTER TO PENSION BUREAU: "I AM A POOR WIDOW"

National Archives via fold3.com.

Bristol July 10/65

Mr. A. Johnson, Sir

May I ask one favor of you that is in regard to a pension that I made application for in April. It was sent back for want of evidence of my son's death, Emerson A. Nichols. He was a member of Co. G, 16 Regt C.V. He was taken prisoner in April 1864 at Plymouth [and] was taken to Andersonville with his Regt. except Co. K whitch was away at that time. Last Oct. I saw the chaplain of the 16th and he says the sutlers clerk gave a list of names of the dead and he was one of the number. He says he died the 8 of Aug. Edward Allen of this place helped carry Emerson out of the stockade and others took him away to the hospital. Edward says he don't think he lived to get there. He could not speak when he left him he was so near gone.

Mr. Albert Walker of Hartford Ct a member of the 16 Regt C.V. brought a list of the 16th that died there and the number of their graves. Emersons was among the number. He says their graves were all numbered where their name was known. I am a poor widow and this son I looked to for my support in part for I am not able to do but very little. I don't feel as though I should want help long. I feel that the hand of God has been laid heavily upon me for within the past 6 years I have buryed my husband, 2 sons, one son in law and 2 grand children. My son in law was buryed at Port Hudson. He was shot while on picket. I will not weary your patience any longer. I only ask your advise in regard to this pension.

Candace M. Nichols

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