Born in Clinton, Georgia, Nicholls attended private schools and graduated from the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1855.
After studying law, he was admitted to the bar in 1855 and practiced in Clinch and Ware Counties, Georgia.
[1] During the Civil War he first served in the Confederate States Army as captain, Sea Coast Guard, commissioned a brigadier general of the 2nd Brigade of the 6th Division Georgia Militia, and then served as a captain, Company I, of the Fourth Regiment, Georgia Cavalry.
After becoming an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1884, he resumed the practice of law in Blackshear, Georgia, where he died December 25, 1893.
[4] This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress