Allison Nelson

Allison Nelson (March 11, 1822 – October 7, 1862) was the ninth mayor of Atlanta, Georgia, as well as a brigadier general in the Confederate army during the American Civil War.

His father, John B. Nelson, who ran Nelson's Ferry across the Chattahoochee River, was an early DeKalb County settler who was murdered in 1825, when Allison was three years old, by John W. Davis.

During the Mexican-American War, Captain Nelson served with another future mayor, Cicero C. Hammock, as well as the father of mayor John B. Goodwin – Private Williamson H. Goodwin – in the Kennesaw Rangers. Later he became a brigadier general under General Narciso López, attempting to free Cuba.

In a close election for mayor, Nelson, running as a Democrat, defeated the Know Nothing candidate, Ira O. McDaniel, but resigned in July when the city council reduced a fine he had levied on two young men for destroying city property, thus leaving John Glen as acting mayor.

Nelson left for Kansas during the border disputes, then moved to Meridian, Texas, where he was involved with Indian affairs, serving under Lawrence Ross and in 1860 was elected to the state legislature. During the American Civil War he served as a brigadier general in the Confederate army until he contracted typhus in September 1862 and died a month later. He was buried in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Namesake
Camp Nelson Confederate Cemetery in Cabot, Arkansas is named in his honor.