Nicholson, James William Augustus

Nicholson, James William Augustus,

1821–87, American naval officer, b. Dedham, Mass.; grandson of Samuel Nicholson. He was appointed a midshipman in 1838, served under Commodore Perry in East Asia (1853), and took part in the attempt to relieve Fort Sumter (1861) that precipitated the Civil War. During the war he commanded ships in the successful Union assaults on Port Royal, S.C., Jacksonville, and other Florida coastal cities and on Mobile Bay.