Thomas Mauduit Nelson was born in Goochland County, Virginia, to Sarah W. Page and Thomas M. Nelson (1782 - 1853). His family moved to west Georgia, and he enlisted in the 4th Regiment Georgia Volunteers in 1861. Later that year he resigned to form Nelson's Company of the Georgia Cavalry, of which he served as captain, in 1862. He married Frances J. Tift in Albany, Georgia, in 1863. By 1864, he had been elected lieutenant colonel of the 6th Regiment Mississippi Cavalry, and in that capacity, he was killed near Tupelo, Mississippi, on July 14, 1864.