"A Lion-Hearted Officer" from Albany, Georgia.

On 28 April 1861 a fortnight after the Federal surrender at Fort Sumter, Private Thomas M. Nelson was among eighty-three volunteers assembled at the Albany, Georgia railroad depot ready to defend the Confederate cause. The twenty-eight year old doctor had been assigned to Company E of the 4th Georgia Volunteer Infantry Regiment and was enroute to Richmond, Virginia.

Upon arriving in Virginia, Dr. Thomas M. Nelson was named surgeon of the 4th Georgia, though he would never fight with the unit. For unknown reasons, Nelson resigned his...