Civil War vet honored 132 years later

She didn’t know it until recently, but Opal Evans’ grandfather was a decorated veteran of the bloodiest war America has ever seen. Well, belatedly decorated anyway – his family didn’t receive his medal until 1998.

Evans’ grandfather, William H. Nessmith, was an early pioneer of Callahan County, Texas, moving there some time after the American Civil War to farm the land. Evans’ brother and sister were born right there Callahan County. She was born in Lubbock County and eventually came to live in Hedley.

Not much was known about Nessmith, however. Evans said no one talked about him much. His service in the War never really came up, and since he died in 1902, Evans never knew him personally.

“We just thought he was from Ohio,” Evans said.

But then a few years back, Evans’ daughter, Jamie Evans Buckner, started researching the family’s history, when she hit what any amateur genealogist might consider a gold mine.

It seems Nessmith was a private in Company F of the West Virginia Infantry from 1861 to 1865. Buckner found an Internet site which told her Nesssmith had even earned a medal, but it was never presented. In fact, it was still gathering dust in the vault of the West Virginia Capitol!

Buckner, who lives in Georgetown, Texas, went to work to claim the medal for her great-grandfather.

“We had to fill out a stack of paperwork this thick,” Evans said, holding her fingers about 1½ inches apart. “Then we had to wait six months to see if any other descendants tried to claim it.”

About a year and a half after Buckner first found the information on her computer and 132 years late, the State of West Virginia mailed the medal to the family in Texas – still in its original box. It was cast in 1866 and is inscribed with Nessmith’s name, rank, and company.

Evans had the medal framed with a short biography and a picture of her grandfather in what they think is his Civil War uniform.

“I was real excited about it,” Evans said.

Thanks to Buckner’s research, the family now knows a great deal about Nessmith’s life. He was born in 1842 in Washington, DC, and was buried on what used to be the Nessmith family farm near Cottonwood, Texas, in 1902. In those in between years, he served a long term in the Union Army, fighting to keep the States united.

How many friends did he see fall beside him during those four years in the war? Did he ever know about the award reserved for him? Or did he simply come to Texas to forget the bloodshed?

Those questions will probably never be answered. But his family can take pride in his finally being properly honored.