MAJOR BENJ. H. NASH
Was born in Powhatan county, Virginia, on April 7, 1835, and was
educated at the Wigwam Academy, Amelia county, Virginia, and at the
University of Virginia. At the age of twenty years, in 1855, he began the
practice of law in Powhatan county, and in the same year settled in
Manchester, Virginia. In the fall of 1860 he was elected to the Virginia
Senate, to fill unexpired term, and was three times elected senator in
the then eighth senatorial district, composed of the counties of Chesterfield,
Powhatan and Cumberland.
He was in field service during the war between the States, captain
Company B, 41st Virginia Infantry, in Mahone's brigade, Anderson's
division, Army of Northern Virginia; was appointed A. A. G. of Mahone's
brigade. He took part in the battle of the Wilderness, and all the
battles of the campaign of 1864, including the Crater and
other engagements. In January 1865, he resigned from the
army to resume his seat in the Senate. He left Richmond, with
other members of the Virginia legislature, on the night of April
2d, 1865, and returned to the city on May 16th. Since that
time he has been engaged in the practice of the law in Richmond, Virginia.
During the years 1886-87 he was commonwealth attorney for
the county of Chesterfield, by appointment of the county court of that
county, although he resided in the city of Richmond, which office he
held until the general election for county officers of that county. Not
being eligible to the office by election, he was not a candidate. Major
Nash is a Mason, member of Temple Lodge, No. 9, Richmond.
His father was Judge John W. Nash, born in Fauquier county, Virginia,
in 1794, died in Powhatan county in 1859. Judge Nash was a
member of the Virginia Senate sixteen years, and president of the same
when that body elected its president. He was made Judge of the second
judicial circuit in 1848, was assigned a member of the special court of
appeals when that court was in existence, and was the Judge of the
second judicial circuit at the time of his death. He was a son of Travis
Nash of Fauquier county, Virginia, and Eleanor W. Nash, nee White.
The Nash family is of English extraction.
The mother of Major Nash, who died in 1835, was Elizabeth, daughter
of Benjamin Hatcher, who was the first president of the Farmers Bank
of Virginia at Richmond.
In Petersburg, Virginia, January 27, 1869, Major Nash married Miss
Mattie M. Freeman, daughter of E. A. and Martha S. Freeman. Her
mother was a daughter of Robert Bolling of Petersburg, Virginia,
and a lineal descendant of the original Robert Bolling, who first married
the descendant of the Indian Princess Pocahontas, and secondly married
Martha Steeth, from whom Mrs. Nash's ancestors are descended.
