DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna do it justice. Alison Nelson — born 1822, gone 1862 — packed enough living into those years to fill three ordinary men's biographies, and that's no exaggeration, that's just the record. Soldier.
Statesman. Indian fighter. The marker lays it all out plain, and plain is almost not enough.
Before Nelson ever set foot in Texas, he'd already been a legislator in his native Georgia, served as mayor of the city of Atlanta, and — here's the part that stops people cold — rode as a general in the Cuban liberation forces in 1850. Nineteen-fifty, a Georgia politician commanding troops in Cuba. Let that sit a moment.
Then, in 1856, he reached Texas. And Texas, being Texas, did not let him rest. He joined state troops fighting Indians, because that was the work in front of him and Alison Nelson was not a man who looked for easier work.
By 1859 the people of Texas had taken notice, and they elected him to the State Legislature. Then 1861 arrived with all its weight, and Nelson served as a delegate to the Texas Secession Convention — a room full of men making a decision that would shake the whole country loose from its hinges. When the Civil War came on in earnest, Nelson didn't just sign papers and wish folks well.
He raised the 10th Regiment Texas Infantry. Trained them. Led them.
Then marched them into the defense of Arkansas, where in June of 1862, at Devall's Bluff, his forces repulsed a Federal assault. A man who'd fought in Cuba, tangled with Indians on the Texas frontier, sat in legislatures and convention halls, and now turned back a Federal attack in Arkansas. You'd think the story had earned its ending.
And it had, just not the ending anyone would have chosen. Alison Nelson died of illness in camp near Austin, Arkansas, on October 7, 1862. Not on a battlefield.
Not with a dramatic last charge. Illness, in camp, in a state far from his adopted Texas. That's how the marker puts it, and there's more truth in that plain telling than in any heroic flourish I could add.
Some men ride hard their whole lives and the thing that gets them is quiet. Alison Nelson rode about as hard as they come.
What the marker says
(1822-1862) Soldier, statesman and Indian fighter. In his native Georgia, a legislator and mayor of city of Atlanta. General in Cuban liberation forces, 1850. On reaching Texas 1856, joined state troops fighting Indians. Elected 1859 to State Legislature; served as delegate to 1861 Texas Secession Convention. In the Civil War raised, trained and led 10th Regiment Texas Infantry. Sent into defense of Arkansas, repulsed Federal assault on Devall's Bluff, June 1862. Died of illness in camp near Austin, Ark., October 7, 1862. (1964)