Colonel Elias Nigh was born in Fairfield County, Ohio, in 1815. His father, Samuel Nigh, was a native of Maryland, settled in Ohio in 1802, and died in 1877.
The subject of this sketch has experienced all the vicissitudes common to young men desirous of becoming worthy of the confidence and respect of their fellowmen, and to battle for the same single-handed, and whatever station in life he has adorned has been won by true merit and an indomitable will.
As a lawyer, soldier, or legislator, all trust has been faithfully and satisfactorily maintained, from the simple clerkship in a country store to a temple of justice, legislative hall, or battlefield, the one verdict–worthy—is the universal sentiment of those who knew him.
Colonel Nigh was the first officer in the union army who introduced slave labor as a relief to the soldier, as will be seen by the following reminiscence, and for that act he deserves credit. Colonel Nigh was chief quartermaster of Buell’s army, and, after the battle at Pittsburg Landing, Buell’s army moved to Northern Alabama, with headquarters at Huntsville.
Colonel Nigh arrived there on the evening of the 29th of June, and the next morning he was notified by Captain Slocum, General Mitchell’s quartermaster, that General Sill’s command, at Battle Creek, on the Memphis & Charleston railroad, was suffering for the want of forage.
Sill’s brigade was a part of Mitchell’s division, which was detached from the main army at Nashville and ordered to take possession of Huntsville, while the main army was on its march to Pittsburg Landing, and was in command of Huntsville, when the main army under Buell, arrived there the last of June.
The country was full of corn, and Colonel Nigh at once directed Captain Slocum to send out his division, teams to bring in corn, and he would have a railroad train there in the evening to take the corn out to Sill’s brigade during the night.
Captain Slocum informed Colonel Nigh that that was impossible, as General Mitchell had ordered all his teams out early in the morning to bring in cotton for the New York company, which was composed of a Mr. Hoop, General Mitchell’s son-in-law, Comstock, and others, of Columbus and Cleveland.
Colonel Nigh at once telegraphed to the quartermaster of Garfield’s and Waggoner’s brigades, at Mooresville, a station eighteen miles west of Huntsville, to send out all the teams to bring in corn and he would have a train there to receive it. Colonel Nigh then reported to General Buell and asked a detail of thirty men to go with the train to load the corn; a detail was ordered from General Lyttle’s brigade, two miles away.
The camps were full of slaves, who had collected about the armies; the detail did not arrive in time and Colonel Nigh directed the officer in charge of the train to enroll thirty negroes, furnish him with a copy of the roll to take the place of the detail of soldiers, which order was executed in less than ten minutes, and the train started.
Colonel Nigh immediately reported what he had done to General Buell; he approved it and requested him to substitute negroes in place of detailed soldiers at all the posts along the line of the railroads. The army was then guarding about 400 miles of road. Colonel Nigh immediately telegraphed to the quartermasters at all the posts and directed them to enroll negroes to do the post-work, and the details of soldiers were relieved before night.
Over 1,000 men were thus relieved from the quartermaster’s department and added to the efficient force of the army. General Buell also directed Colonel Innes, commanding a regiment of engineers and mechanics, who were rebuilding railroad bridges destroyed by the rebels, to make a similar substitution for detailed soldiers who were doing the rough work; he had about 2,000 soldiers so employed; so that within a day or two over 3,000 muskets were added to the effective force of the army.
General Buell at once reported what was done to the secretary of war, who approved it and issued an order directing the employment of negroes to do all the rough work throughout the army where it was practicable, and from that on the negroes became an effective aid in the prosecution of the war.
This matter is written out full to substantiate the claim we have heretofore made that Colonel Nigh was the first to introduce the services of the negro in the armies in an organized form. When General Buell was relieved from his command the records of the army were sent to Washington, and there lost or suppressed, so that this matter never got into history.
For a more extended biographical history of Colonel Nigh see Biographical Cyclopedia, “Portrait Gallery of Ohio.”
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