Thomas Amos Rogers Nelson

Infobox Congressman
name=Thomas Amos Rogers Nelson

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state=Tennessee
district=1st & 4th
party=Opposition Party
National Union Party
Democratic Party
term=March 4, 1859 – March 3, 1861
Prisoner of War during 37th U.S. Congress
preceded=Albert Galiton Watkins
William Brickly Stokes
succeeded=George Washington Bridges
Edmund Cooper
date of birth=birth date|1812|3|19|mf=y
place of birth=Kingston, Tennessee, U.S.
date of death=death date and age|1873|8|24|1812|3|19|mf=y
place of death=Knoxville, Tennessee, U.S.
spouse=
profession=Politician, Lawyer, Judge
religion=
current occupation=
footnotes=

Thomas Amos Rogers Nelson (March 19, 1812 – August 24, 1873) was an American politician and a member of the United States House of Representatives from Tennessee. He was born in Kingston, Tennessee in Roane County. He completed preparatory studies and graduated from East Tennessee College (now the University of Tennessee at Knoxville) in 1828. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1852, and commenced practice in Washington County, Tennessee.

He served two terms as attorney general of the first judicial circuit. He was appointed commissioner (diplomatic) to China on March 6, 1851. He resigned on July 2, 1851. He was elected as an Opposition Party candidate to the Thirty-sixth Congress and served from March 4, 1859 to March 3, 1861. He was re-elected to the Thirty-seventh Congress, but while en route to Washington to take his seat, during the Civil War, he was arrested by Confederate scouts. He was conveyed to Richmond as a prisoner, paroled, and allowed to return to his home.

Upon the advent of the Union Army into East Tennessee in 1863, he moved to Knoxville. He was a delegate to the National Union Convention held at Philadelphia in 1866 and to the Democratic National Convention in 1868. He was one of the counsel that defended President Andrew Johnson in his impeachment trial in 1868. He was elected a justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court in 1870 and served until his resignation in 1871. He died in Knoxville, Tennessee and was interned there at Old Gray Cemetery next to his second wife in an unmarked grave.

On Sept 27, 1871 his son shot and killed ex-CSA Brigadier General James Holt Clanton [ [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=8757 Find a grave] ] in Knoxville, Tennessee.

References

External links

* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6912607 Nelson] , at Find A Grave
###@@@KEY@@@###USRepSuccessionBox
state=Tennessee
district=1
before=Albert Galiton Watkins
after=George Washington Bridges
years=March 4, 1859 – March 3, 1861USRepSuccessionBox
state=Tennessee
district=4
before=William Brickly Stokes
after=Edmund Cooper⁽²⁾
years="never served" ⁽¹⁾s-ref|Nelson was captured by Confederate scouts and was imprisoned before he could take the seat.|Because of Tennessee's secession, the House seat was vacant for four years before Cooper succeeded Nelson.