Artillery Regiment, he served in the Third Seminole War in Florida, but resigned his commission after a year and returned home.

[2] Nicholls joined the Confederate Army in 1861 as a captain in the 8th Louisiana Infantry Regiment and participated in the First Battle of Bull Run and in the Shenandoah Valley Campaign in Virginia, where his left arm was amputated.

While leading a brigade during the Battle of Chancellorsville, a shell ripped off Nicholls' left foot, forcing him to retire from combat service.

In June 1864, Nicholls commanded a group of invalid soldiers, dubbed the "Crippled Corps", during the Battle of Lynchburg.

Disabled and unfit for further field command, he was transferred to the Trans-Mississippi Department to direct the Volunteer and Conscript Bureau until the end of the war.

Nicholls garnered a majority of 8,000 votes, but the Republican-controlled State Returning Board cited irregularities and declared Packard the winner.

As part of the Compromise of 1877 to resolve the disputed presidential election of 1876, President Hayes recognized the Democrat Nicholls as the winner.

Shortly before the incident, as thousands of angry protesters gathered near the Parish Prison, the Italian consul in New Orleans sought the governor's help.

It opened as the Francis T. Nicholls Industrial School for Girls, and offered secondary vocational training, concentrating on apparel manufacturing.

During the 1960s, the school was integrated and black students fought to change the team names from The Rebels and the mascot from the Confederate flag to the current Bobcat.