Black History Month: Lucy Higgs Nichols

Honorary female member of the Grand Army of the Republic fraternal organization

For #BlackHistoryMonth we're going to learn about Lucy Higgs Nichols (April 10, 1838 – January 25, 1915), born an enslaved Black woman who became the honorary female member of the post-war Grand Army of the Republic fraternal organization. This honor is due to her service as the 23rd Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment, of the Army of the Tennessee.

Lucy was born in Halifax County North Carolina and was considered chattel property of Reuben Higgs of Hardeman County, Tennessee. She was sent back and forth between Higgs' household and the households of various of Reuben's children. This occurred from 1838 to late June of 1862. By then, Lucy was married and had a daughter named Mona. It is thought that Lucy's husband (name unknown) escaped across the Union lines and was either a manual laborer in Grant's army or he enlisted in a colored regiment. Virtually nothing is known of his existence.

In late June 1862, Lucy learned that her owner's enslaved people were to be confiscated and sold south. So Lucy and her daughter Mona escaped across the Hatchie River in Tennessee and crossed over Union lines near Bolivar Tennessee. Her arrival was recorded by a Major Shadrack Hooper of the 23d Indiana Infantry Regiment, who as adjutant recorded important information for the regiment. When her owner arrived at the camp to retrieve her and the baby, Lucy refused to go with him, and the soldiers of the Twenty-third came to her rescue. No details are given on this exchange but it is claimed the men threatened the owner.

Lucy was noted as being a cheerful, smiling, kind person who was skilled at domestic work (washerwoman, seamstress, cook), was an excellent nurse and singer, but was exceptionally skilled at foraging, or gathering food outside of camp. She had occasion to work for General William Gresham, a division commander that the 23d Indiana was subordinate to. Lucy very quickly became an integral part of the 23d Indiana as one of its best nurses. She was so revered that when Lucy's daughter died (or was possibly killed) at the Siege of Vicksburg, the men of the Regiment held a funeral with many flowers gathered from around the various camps and parts of the siegeworks. Lucy would accompany the Regiment wherever it went--furlough back to Indiana, or redeployment back to war in the South. Lucy and the 23d took part in Sherman's March to the Sea and then Sherman's march north through South and North Carolina. The 23d Indiana would fight its last action at Bentonville NC, a battle which essentially marked the Confederacy's last attempt to muster a large army to fight the Union forces. Lucy then marched with the 23rd in the Grand Review of the Armies in Washington DC on May 23–24, 1865, following the Union victory.

After the war, Lucy returned to Indiana with the regiment and became a private citizen in New Albany. She still worked for officers of the regiment and worked to nurse veterans back to health. So beloved was Lucy that five years after the war, when she contracted measles, she was cared for by the soldiers, until she was well; and, again, years later, when she had a stroke. When General Gresham's daughter was married, Lucy was an invited guest at Palmer House, in Chicago, and was considered a member of the family.

When the fraternal organization Grand Army of the Republic was formed, Lucy was made an honorary member of the local post, and she became the only honorary female member of the GAR (though she was not technically a member--the first female member was Kady Brownell, who we cover in April during Confederate Heritage Month). She attended every meeting and reunion with the soldiers. Because no official records of her service existed, Lucy--like many volunteer nurses--was denied a pension. The Grand Army of the Republic, then a powerful lobby organization, rallied to her defense and over seventy veterans testified and provided proof that Lucy was one of them. She received a monthly pension starting July 1898.

Lucy would go on to marry a man named John Nichols, himself a musician in the 152nd Indiana during the war. After the war, John would join a colored regiment for a number of years before coming home. The 1910 census still shows them living on a Naghel Street in New Albany Indiana. Lucy Nichols is listed on the ledger of the Floyd County Poor House as being admitted on January 1, 1915.

Lucy died January 25, 1915. She is buried in an unmarked grave at West Haven Cemetery, New Albany.

The only known photograph of Lucy is a very high-resolution photo of a large group of Civil War and Spanish–American War soldiers and veterans at a reunion in English, Indiana in 1898. Lucy is instantly identifiable, standing among the men. I have included the original photo but also a cropped screenshot. The link to the large-size original is https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/Lucy_Higgs_Nichols_Original.jpg