STATEMENT OF SERGEANT NICHOLS.
“The Cambria, Captain Sumner, arrived off Galveston Bar at three o’clock P.M. January 2d. On board were three hundred men First Texas Cavalry, Colonel Davis, recruited in New Orleans from Texas refugees, and equipments for a full cavalry regiment; a detachment First Vermont Battery with guns; Sergeants Nichols, Vialle, Attwell, and Private Greene, all of Company G, Forty-Second Regiment, en route to join their company. A small brass cannon on deck was fired several times to signal a pilot and notify the navy, without attracting attention. Several refugees, ‘Nicaragua’ Smith, Foley, big ’Jack’ and others, volunteered and went in a row-boat to notify the fleet. As his volunteers did not return, Captain Sumner remained off the bar until morning without suspicion of any danger. About ten o’clock A.M. next day a sloop, pilot flag up, with three or four men aboard, approached and made an attempt to entice the steamer on the bar, reporting she could follow, and they would take soundings. There was ten and one-half feet of water on the bar, and the Cambria drew eleven feet. Not one of the men would come on board. After some talk Captain Sumner became suspicious, and, in a loud voice, ordered: ’Men, stand by the ports!’ although the steamer was not armed. Just then a few refugees on board recognized Confederate Captain Payne on the sloop, told Sumner of the fact, who ordered him to come on board the Cambria or the sloop would be blown to pieces. Captain Payne came aboard, and, in answer to questions, said, Captain Wainwright was in command of the fleet, with several other false stories, playing his part well until he, in turn, recognized several faces on board. He then knew he was trapped, and said: ‘The game is up, I am lying; the Confederates are in possession of the city and harbor.’ The whole story of what had occurred was then told, including a tale of the capture of Smith and his comrades. Payne reported that the Harriet Lane was about ready to come out after the Cambria, so Captain Sumner allowed the other men on the sloop to get away, while he made haste to reach New Orleans. This Captain Payne was placed in confinement on a war-vessel at New Orleans. He was afterwards seen on the streets of that city apparently a free man.”
“Nicaragua” Smith was tried by a court-martial, declared a traitor, and shot January 8th, game to the last. Six balls entered his body. A characteristic speech made by him when face to face with the firing party would not bear repetition here. Two of his comrades escaped, but Foley and big “Jack” managed to be paroled when the enlisted men were sent to the Federal lines.