Battlefield Cane Engraved to Lt. Colonel Nichols / SOLD

Civil War Battlefield Cane Engraved to Lt. Colonel Nichols - Inventory Number: PER 025 / SOLD

Presentation Cane

Lieutenant Colonel George Ward Nichols

Civil War cane engraved to Lt. Colonel Nichols – Hardwood cane bearing a jeweler engraved silver plaque that encircles the shaft.  “From ARC to Lt. Colonel Nichols.  The entire cane is fashioned from a single piece of wood with curved grip.  Measures 34 ½”.

George Ward Nichols (June 21, 1831 - September 15, 1885) was an American journalist known as the creator of the legend of Wild Bill Hickok.

Nichols was born on June 21, 1831 in Tremont, Maine. During American Civil War he served under General John C. Fremont and General William Sherman. He wrote The Story of the Great March (1865).

In September 1865 Nichols arrived in Springfield, Missouri, where he met James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok. The article Wild Bill by Nichols appeared in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine in February 1867. The publication immortalized Wild Bill. Kansas newspapers criticized Nichols for exaggerated exploits of the gunfighter.

Later Nichols moved to Cincinnati, where he became president of the Cincinnati College of Music. From 1868 until his death he was married to Maria Longworth Nichols Storer. The couple had two children: Joseph and Margaret. Nichols died from tuberculosis on September 15, 1885.

Inventory Number: PER 025 / SOLD