Battle Wounds and a Bold Bluff: The Adventures of Union Soldier George Nason
Carte de visite by Rufus Morgan of New Bern, N.C. On July 13, 1861, the 5th Massachusetts Infantry received orders to pack and store its personal baggage in preparation to break camp in Alexandria, Va. The officers and men understood the implication. They would soon march to meet the enemy.
About this time, according to one report, two senior officers rode into camp: Brig. Gen. Irvin McDowell, overall commander of the Union army protecting the capital, and Col. William Buell Franklin, who led the brigade that included the 5th.
So the story goes, McDowell and Franklin arrived as the regiment had formed a hollow square in camp. The colonel of the 5th, Samuel C. Lawrence, received and introduced them to his men. In truth, the two officers needed no introduction, for the regiment had already gained a reputation throughout the army as the “Steady Fifth” for its proficiency and discipline on the drill field. Once the formalities concluded, the officers spoke to the volunteers, reminding them that their three-month enlistment would soon expire and they had to decide whether to go home or remain and win glory on the battlefield.
Everyone knew the answer: The Steady Fifth was in for the fight.
A regimental historian recorded with pride, “To the everlasting credit of Massachusetts soldiers be it said that, to a man, they chose the latter course and stayed in the ranks.”
One of those men is pictured here: Private George Warren Nason, Jr., a 27-year-old peacetime expressman from Franklin, Mass. Growing up, he had heard the stories about his maternal and paternal great-grandfathers—heroes who fought in the Continental Army, beat the British, and set the stage for drafting and ratifying of the Constitution.
When the bombardment of Fort Sumter by South Carolina state forces on April 12, 1861, threatened the stability of the nation and the very existence of the Constitution, Nason acted. Three days after cannon shots blasted Sumter’s brick walls, Nason enlisted in Company I and joined his new comrades at Faneuil Hall, the regiment’s temporary headquarters.
Less than two weeks later, the regiment encamped at the Treasury Building in Washington, D.C., where President Abraham Lincoln and loyal population of the city welcomed them.
The 5th welcomed a drillmaster in the form of a recent West Point graduate, 1st Lt. George Warren Dresser of the 4th U.S. Artillery. He worked with the regiment’s lieutenant colonel, James Durrell Greene, a Harvard graduate, to whip the men into shape. According to a news report, the “regiment is practicing the severest kind of drill daily,” adding that Greene and Dresser “are devoting themselves assiduously to the work of making this one of the best regiments in the service.” The daily routine included six hours of drill and another hour of target practice.
The ambitious drill program transformed the men into a crack regiment. In a mid-June review, Lincoln and members of his cabinet reportedly dubbed it the Steady Fifth in recognition of its conduct and bearing.
Weeks later, on July 16, Nason and the rest of the 5th left their Alexandria camp to whip the rebels. The battle, near Manassas and Bull Run, unfolded on July 21. The 5th found themselves in the thick of the fray. Conspicuous in dark blue uniforms reminiscent of U.S. Regulars, the men and officers showed the same cool courage as displayed by the professionals. However, the Bay Staters and the rest of Franklin’s Brigade ran into trouble in the vicinity of Henry House and eventually retreated in confusion to the Defenses of Washington with the rest of the army.
The regiment suffered 34 casualties, including Nason, after a gunshot hit him in his left leg and a saber cut through his cap. Captured by Confederates in the chaos and confusion of battle, he escaped that night under cover of darkness and rejoined the 5th.
After the regiment’s term of enlistment expired, Nason looked for another opportunity to serve. He soon found it. In mid-August, he joined the 23rd Massachusetts Infantry. His veteran status and peacetime job as an expressman responsible for delivering valuable and time-sensitive goods likely contributed to his assignment as the commissary sergeant of Company H.
His skills and experience made him a desirable asset after the regiment received surprise orders to depart Massachusetts for the South after the Union suffered a defeat at Ball’s Bluff, Va. The colonel ordered Nason to remain behind and gather up men who were away when the unexpected orders arrived. A few weeks later, on Thanksgiving Day 1861, Nason joined his regiment, now encamped in Maryland, with four train cars: three filled with soldiers and a fourth with delicacies from home for Thanksgiving dinner. Nason must have received a hero’s welcome.
Weeks later, the 23rd and other regiments, organized as the Coast Division, joined Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside’s expedition to invade the North Carolina coast. A flotilla of gunboats transported the troops. Commanders detailed Nason to be the storekeeper of the warship Huzzar, managing and safeguarding critical supplies. He served in this capacity in early February 1862 when Burnside launched an amphibious operation to capture Roanoke Island. During the successful attack, Nason joined the crew of the starboard cannon as its Number Two man, responsible for ramming the charge and projectile down the tube and sponging the barrel after firing. While engaged in this duty an enemy shot tore into a gun rail on the deck and sent splinters flying. One shard of wood struck him in the wrist, severely injuring him. A month later, while on the Huzzar along the blockade near New Bern, he suffered another wound—his third as a soldier.
War leads to unexpected outcomes. For Nason, his wounding brought him to Union-occupied New Bern, which became his home for the next decade.
Early on, he served on assignments as post commissary, organizer of a fire department, and clerk in the Provost Marshal’s Office.
This last named assignment set the stage for Nason’s proudest moment in uniform.
He told the story loomed after the war ended. On May 4, 1864, with most of the army and navy forces away on an expedition, only Nason and about 30 men and officers and three generals remained in the city to guard $3 million of government supplies and munitions. Area Confederates, likely informed by sympathizers inside the city, gathered around the outskirts of New Bern and looked for an opportunity to strike.
Union commanders went on the defensive. They called on Nason to supply boxes and laborers to bury records in an effort to keep them out of enemy hands.
Nason had a different idea in mind—a bluff. He proposed to have some of the 1,000 Black laborers in town form several brass bands and have them board a train and leave the city without making a noise under cover of darkness. The train, with its lights doused and covered in blankets, would travel some miles down the tracks, at which point the train would steam back to New Bern—this time with blankets thrown off, lights on, and the laborers cheering and playing instruments as loudly as possible. Maybe, just maybe, the Confederates would believe that Union troops were returning from their expedition.
The generals were not sold on Nason’s bluff. However, Assistant Adjutant General Capt. John A. Judson liked the idea and ordered the heads of transportation and the shipping yard to help Nason execute his plan. A barrel of whisky was brought in to prime the men, who were about to lay their lives on the line to keep New Bern in Union control, and the supplies—and themselves—out of Confederate hands.
The ruse worked. Nason noted the generals received the credit.
After Nason’s enlistment expired in the autumn of 1864 he was employed as a civilian in the Provost Marshal’s Office, followed by a nine-year stint as postmaster. He’s pictured in this role with his hands full of cartes de visite.
Photographs played a role in Nason’s later life as President of the Association of the Minute Men of ’61, an organization honoring the first defenders of Massachusetts. In 1899, Nason gathered photographs of his comrades, and had them reproduced as half-tone prints in a commemorative booklet. The members loved it. Nason expanded on the idea in his 1910 book “Minute Men of ’61: History and Complete Roster of the Massachusetts Regiments.”
By this time, Nason had lived an adventurous postwar life up and down the Eastern Seaboard as a newspaper publisher, managing turpentine factories, surveying railroads, constructing canals, serving as a delegate to elect Ulysses S. Grant to a second term in the White House, partnering in a commercial real estate business back in Massachusetts, and much, much more.
Nason died in 1911, a year after publication of his history of the 1861 Minute Men. He was 77 years old. His wife, Hattie, and a son, Millard, predeceased him.
I encourage you to use this image for educational purposes only. However, please ask for permission.
Battle Wounds and a Bold Bluff: The Adventures of Union Soldier George Nason
Carte de visite by Rufus Morgan of New Bern, N.C. On July 13, 1861, the 5th Massachusetts Infantry received orders to pack and store its personal baggage in preparation to break camp in Alexandria, Va. The officers and men understood the implication. They would soon march to meet the enemy.
About this time, according to one report, two senior officers rode into camp: Brig. Gen. Irvin McDowell, overall commander of the Union army protecting the capital, and Col. William Buell Franklin, who led the brigade that included the 5th.
So the story goes, McDowell and Franklin arrived as the regiment had formed a hollow square in camp. The colonel of the 5th, Samuel C. Lawrence, received and introduced them to his men. In truth, the two officers needed no introduction, for the regiment had already gained a reputation throughout the army as the “Steady Fifth” for its proficiency and discipline on the drill field. Once the formalities concluded, the officers spoke to the volunteers, reminding them that their three-month enlistment would soon expire and they had to decide whether to go home or remain and win glory on the battlefield.
Everyone knew the answer: The Steady Fifth was in for the fight.
A regimental historian recorded with pride, “To the everlasting credit of Massachusetts soldiers be it said that, to a man, they chose the latter course and stayed in the ranks.”
One of those men is pictured here: Private George Warren Nason, Jr., a 27-year-old peacetime expressman from Franklin, Mass. Growing up, he had heard the stories about his maternal and paternal great-grandfathers—heroes who fought in the Continental Army, beat the British, and set the stage for drafting and ratifying of the Constitution.
When the bombardment of Fort Sumter by South Carolina state forces on April 12, 1861, threatened the stability of the nation and the very existence of the Constitution, Nason acted. Three days after cannon shots blasted Sumter’s brick walls, Nason enlisted in Company I and joined his new comrades at Faneuil Hall, the regiment’s temporary headquarters.
Less than two weeks later, the regiment encamped at the Treasury Building in Washington, D.C., where President Abraham Lincoln and loyal population of the city welcomed them.
The 5th welcomed a drillmaster in the form of a recent West Point graduate, 1st Lt. George Warren Dresser of the 4th U.S. Artillery. He worked with the regiment’s lieutenant colonel, James Durrell Greene, a Harvard graduate, to whip the men into shape. According to a news report, the “regiment is practicing the severest kind of drill daily,” adding that Greene and Dresser “are devoting themselves assiduously to the work of making this one of the best regiments in the service.” The daily routine included six hours of drill and another hour of target practice.
The ambitious drill program transformed the men into a crack regiment. In a mid-June review, Lincoln and members of his cabinet reportedly dubbed it the Steady Fifth in recognition of its conduct and bearing.
Weeks later, on July 16, Nason and the rest of the 5th left their Alexandria camp to whip the rebels. The battle, near Manassas and Bull Run, unfolded on July 21. The 5th found themselves in the thick of the fray. Conspicuous in dark blue uniforms reminiscent of U.S. Regulars, the men and officers showed the same cool courage as displayed by the professionals. However, the Bay Staters and the rest of Franklin’s Brigade ran into trouble in the vicinity of Henry House and eventually retreated in confusion to the Defenses of Washington with the rest of the army.
The regiment suffered 34 casualties, including Nason, after a gunshot hit him in his left leg and a saber cut through his cap. Captured by Confederates in the chaos and confusion of battle, he escaped that night under cover of darkness and rejoined the 5th.
After the regiment’s term of enlistment expired, Nason looked for another opportunity to serve. He soon found it. In mid-August, he joined the 23rd Massachusetts Infantry. His veteran status and peacetime job as an expressman responsible for delivering valuable and time-sensitive goods likely contributed to his assignment as the commissary sergeant of Company H.
His skills and experience made him a desirable asset after the regiment received surprise orders to depart Massachusetts for the South after the Union suffered a defeat at Ball’s Bluff, Va. The colonel ordered Nason to remain behind and gather up men who were away when the unexpected orders arrived. A few weeks later, on Thanksgiving Day 1861, Nason joined his regiment, now encamped in Maryland, with four train cars: three filled with soldiers and a fourth with delicacies from home for Thanksgiving dinner. Nason must have received a hero’s welcome.
Weeks later, the 23rd and other regiments, organized as the Coast Division, joined Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside’s expedition to invade the North Carolina coast. A flotilla of gunboats transported the troops. Commanders detailed Nason to be the storekeeper of the warship Huzzar, managing and safeguarding critical supplies. He served in this capacity in early February 1862 when Burnside launched an amphibious operation to capture Roanoke Island. During the successful attack, Nason joined the crew of the starboard cannon as its Number Two man, responsible for ramming the charge and projectile down the tube and sponging the barrel after firing. While engaged in this duty an enemy shot tore into a gun rail on the deck and sent splinters flying. One shard of wood struck him in the wrist, severely injuring him. A month later, while on the Huzzar along the blockade near New Bern, he suffered another wound—his third as a soldier.
War leads to unexpected outcomes. For Nason, his wounding brought him to Union-occupied New Bern, which became his home for the next decade.
Early on, he served on assignments as post commissary, organizer of a fire department, and clerk in the Provost Marshal’s Office.
This last named assignment set the stage for Nason’s proudest moment in uniform.
He told the story loomed after the war ended. On May 4, 1864, with most of the army and navy forces away on an expedition, only Nason and about 30 men and officers and three generals remained in the city to guard $3 million of government supplies and munitions. Area Confederates, likely informed by sympathizers inside the city, gathered around the outskirts of New Bern and looked for an opportunity to strike.
Union commanders went on the defensive. They called on Nason to supply boxes and laborers to bury records in an effort to keep them out of enemy hands.
Nason had a different idea in mind—a bluff. He proposed to have some of the 1,000 Black laborers in town form several brass bands and have them board a train and leave the city without making a noise under cover of darkness. The train, with its lights doused and covered in blankets, would travel some miles down the tracks, at which point the train would steam back to New Bern—this time with blankets thrown off, lights on, and the laborers cheering and playing instruments as loudly as possible. Maybe, just maybe, the Confederates would believe that Union troops were returning from their expedition.
The generals were not sold on Nason’s bluff. However, Assistant Adjutant General Capt. John A. Judson liked the idea and ordered the heads of transportation and the shipping yard to help Nason execute his plan. A barrel of whisky was brought in to prime the men, who were about to lay their lives on the line to keep New Bern in Union control, and the supplies—and themselves—out of Confederate hands.
The ruse worked. Nason noted the generals received the credit.
After Nason’s enlistment expired in the autumn of 1864 he was employed as a civilian in the Provost Marshal’s Office, followed by a nine-year stint as postmaster. He’s pictured in this role with his hands full of cartes de visite.
Photographs played a role in Nason’s later life as President of the Association of the Minute Men of ’61, an organization honoring the first defenders of Massachusetts. In 1899, Nason gathered photographs of his comrades, and had them reproduced as half-tone prints in a commemorative booklet. The members loved it. Nason expanded on the idea in his 1910 book “Minute Men of ’61: History and Complete Roster of the Massachusetts Regiments.”
By this time, Nason had lived an adventurous postwar life up and down the Eastern Seaboard as a newspaper publisher, managing turpentine factories, surveying railroads, constructing canals, serving as a delegate to elect Ulysses S. Grant to a second term in the White House, partnering in a commercial real estate business back in Massachusetts, and much, much more.
Nason died in 1911, a year after publication of his history of the 1861 Minute Men. He was 77 years old. His wife, Hattie, and a son, Millard, predeceased him.
I encourage you to use this image for educational purposes only. However, please ask for permission.