Lloyd Tilghman (January 26, 1816 – May 16, 1863) was a

Confederate Confederacy or confederate may refer to: States or communities * Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities * Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...

general in the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

. A railroad construction engineer by background, he was selected by the Confederate government to build two forts to defend the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers. The location of Fort Henry on the Tennessee was vulnerable to flooding, but Tilghman was slow to spot this, and his surrender of the fort to

U.S. Grant Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant ; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As Commanding General, he led the Union Ar ...

in February 1862 was regarded as a disgrace. Taken prisoner and exchanged, he commanded a

brigade A brigade is a major tactical military formation that typically comprises three to six battalions plus supporting elements. It is roughly equivalent to an enlarged or reinforced regiment. Two or more brigades may constitute a division. B ...

in the

Vicksburg campaign The Vicksburg campaign was a series of maneuvers and battles in the Western Theater of the American Civil War directed against Vicksburg, Mississippi, a fortress city that dominated the last Confederate-controlled section of the Mississippi Ri ...

, and was killed by a shell at the Battle of Champion Hill, where he was widely praised for gallantry.

Early life

Tilghman was born in "Rich Neck Manor",

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to James Tilghman who was the great-grandson of

Matthew Tilghman Matthew Tilghman (February 17, 1718 – May 4, 1790) was an American planter, and Revolutionary leader from Maryland. He served as a delegate to the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1776, where he signed the 1774 Continental Association. Early ...

, and Ann C. Shoemaker Tilghman. He attended the

United States Military Academy The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a fort, since it sits on strategic high groun ...

and graduated near the bottom of his class in 1836. He was commissioned a brevet second lieutenant in the

1st U.S. Dragoons The 1st Cavalry Regiment is a United States Army regiment that has its antecedents in the early 19th century in the formation of the United States Regiment of Dragoons. To this day, the unit's special designation is "First Regiment of Dragoons ...

, but resigned his commission after three months. He worked as a construction engineer on a number of railroads in the South and in

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, except for a period in which he returned to the Army as a captain in the

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and

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Volunteer Artillery (August 1847 to July 1848). In 1852, he took up residence in

Paducah, Kentucky Paducah ( ) is a home rule-class city in and the county seat of McCracken County, Kentucky. The largest city in the Jackson Purchase region, it is located at the confluence of the Tennessee and the Ohio rivers, halfway between St. Louis, Miss ...

Civil War

Tilghman was commissioned

colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge o ...

of the 3rd Kentucky Infantry on July 5, 1861, shortly after the start of the

. He was promoted to

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in the

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on October 18. When General

Albert Sidney Johnston Albert Sidney Johnston (February 2, 1803 – April 6, 1862) served as a general in three different armies: the Texian Army, the United States Army, and the Confederate States Army. He saw extensive combat during his 34-year military career, figh ...

was looking for an officer to create defensive positions on the vulnerable

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and Cumberland Rivers, he was unaware of Tilghman's presence in his department and another officer was selected. However, the Richmond government pointed out Tilghman's engineering background and he was finally chosen for the task. The original sites for Forts

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and Donelson were selected by another general, Daniel S. Donelson, but Tilghman was then placed in command and ordered to construct them. The geographic placement of Fort Henry was extremely poor, sited on a floodplain of the Tennessee River, but Tilghman did not object to its location until it was too late. (Afterward, he wrote bitterly in his report that Fort Henry was in a "wretched military position ... The history of military engineering records no parallel to this case.") He also was desultory in managing its needed construction and that of the small Fort Heiman, located on the Kentucky bank of the Tennessee, and quarreled with the engineers assigned to the task. He did manage to do a more creditable job on the construction of Fort Donelson, which was sited on dry ground, commanding the river. On February 6, 1862, an army under Brig. Gen.

Ulysses S. Grant Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant ; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As Commanding General, he led the Union Ar ...

and gunboats under

Flag Officer A flag officer is a commissioned officer in a nation's armed forces senior enough to be entitled to fly a flag to mark the position from which the officer exercises command. The term is used differently in different countries: *In many countries ...

Andrew H. Foote Andrew Hull Foote (September 12, 1806 – June 26, 1863) was an American naval officer who was noted for his service in the American Civil War and also for his contributions to several naval reforms in the years prior to the war. When the war cam ...

attacked Fort Henry and Tilghman was forced to surrender. (This was not his first encounter with Grant. Tilghman was in Paducah when Grant captured that city the previous September.) Prior to doing so, he led the vast majority of his garrison troops on the 12-mile road to Fort Donelson, and then returned to surrender with a handful of artillerymen who were left defending the fort. The biggest factor in the defeat of Fort Henry was not the naval artillery or Grant's infantry; it was the rising flood waters of the Tennessee, which flooded the powder magazines and forced a number of the guns out of action. (If Grant's attack had been delayed by two days, the battle would have never occurred because the fort was by then entirely underwater.) Tilghman was imprisoned as a

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of w ...

at Fort Warren in Boston and was not released until August 15, when he was exchanged for

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general John F. Reynolds. Tilghman is remembered as brave and gallant in surrendering with his men, but he was derelict in his duty by abandoning the command of his garrison, which was responsible for the defense of both Henry and Donelson. (He was replaced by Brig. Gen.

John B. Floyd John Buchanan Floyd (June 1, 1806 – August 26, 1863) was the 31st Governor of Virginia, U.S. Secretary of War, and the Confederate general in the American Civil War who lost the crucial Battle of Fort Donelson. Early family life John Buch ...

at Donelson, whose army fought under poor leadership and was surrendered to Grant on February 16.) Returning to the field in the fall of 1862, Tilghman became a brigade commander in

Mansfield Lovell Mansfield Lovell (October 20, 1822 – June 1, 1884) was a major general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. As military commander of New Orleans when the city unexpectedly fell to the Union Navy in 1862, Lovell was fier ...

's division of

Earl Van Dorn Earl Van Dorn (September 17, 1820May 7, 1863) started his military career as a United States Army officer but joined Confederate forces in 1861 after the Civil War broke out. He was a major general when he was killed in a private conflict. A g ...

's Army of the West, following the

Second Battle of Corinth The second Battle of Corinth (which, in the context of the American Civil War, is usually referred to as the Battle of Corinth, to differentiate it from the siege of Corinth earlier the same year) was fought October 3–4, 1862, in Corinth, ...

. In the

Vicksburg Campaign The Vicksburg campaign was a series of maneuvers and battles in the Western Theater of the American Civil War directed against Vicksburg, Mississippi, a fortress city that dominated the last Confederate-controlled section of the Mississippi Ri ...

of 1863, he was hit in the chest by a shell and killed in the Battle of Champion Hill. Tilghman was initially interred in the Soldiers Rest section of Vicksburg's Cedar Hill Cemetery. His body was moved in 1902 to Woodlawn Cemetery,

The Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

, where he was buried beside his wife who had moved to the city.

Eyewitness accounts

''Orderly Sergeant E. T. Eggleston''

Tilghman came to our position, in an open field, on foot. He was in particular good humor. He wore a new fatigue uniform. When he arrived near our guns our officers were mounted, and were in position prescribed for dress parade, each Lieutenant, George H. Tompkins and Thomas J. Haines, in their positions, and Captain Cowan mounted on a large grey horse, making a conspicuous target for the Federal sharpshooters. We were all tyros in war at that time. The General in a pleasant manner said to our Captain, I think you and your Lieutenants had better dismount. They are shooting pretty close to us, and I do not know whether they are shooting at your fine grey horse or my new uniform. They very promptly obeyed the suggestion.

Having to go to headquarters daily with reports, I had become personally acquainted with the affable, gallant, and genial officer. Only a few minutes before his death we were sitting on a log near a strip of woodland discussing the line of battle we then held, comparing it with the one we had shortly before occupied. He got up from the log and went to one of our guns, a 12-pound Napoleon, Corporal Tommie Johnson, gunner, and remarked to him, I think you are shooting rather too high, and sighted the gun himself. He returned to a little knoll within a few feet of the log on which I was still sitting and was standing erect, his field glasses to his eyes, watching for the effect of the shot from our gun when he received the fatal wound not from a splinter from a shell, however, but from a solid shot. It is true that a horse was killed by the same missile and I noticed that the horse was dead some time before he General ceased to breathe, though he was unconscious.

It was some little time after the general fell before his son, a youth, could be found, and I shall never forget the touching scene when the grief and lamentations he cast himself on his dying and unconscious father. Those of us who witnessed this distressing scene shed tears of sympathy, for the bereaved son and of sorrow for our fallen hero, the chivalrous and beloved Tilghman.

''Private James Spencer, 1st Mississippi Light Artillery'' "General Tilghman and his staff rode up to Capt. Cowan and ordered him to open fire. The General dismounted and said to Capt. Cowan, I will take a shot at those fellows myself, and walked up to field piece No. 2 and sighted and ordered it fired and shell from the Federal Battery passed close to him while our gun was being reloaded. Tilghman remarked, They are trying to spoil my new uniform. He then sighted the gun again and as he stepped back to order fire, a Parrott shell struck him in the side, nearly cutting him in twain. Just before he dismounted, he ordered his son, a boy of about 17 years to go with a squad and drive some sharpshooters from a gin house on our left, who were annoying our cannoneers. The son had been gone 10 or 15 minutes on this mission before his father was killed." ''Emilie Riley McKinley: May 21, 1863'' "Gen. Tilghman was carried to Mrs. Brien's house at night by torchlight. His hair was covered with blood. His son accompanied him. They thought at first of burying him in our churchyard but carried him to Vicksburg. Poor Gen. Tilghman – he was brave to a fault. We little thought a week ago when he passed this place that he would in so short a time be dead. I saw him last Fall in Jackson directly after his return from a prison at the North, Fort Warren. He made a speech at the Bowman House oteland told us how cruelly he had been treated in prison. And now poor fellow, he is gone, but his name will live forever. He fell bravely defending his fireside and home. May he rest in peace." ''Colonel A. E. Reynolds, 26th Mississippi Infantry, Commanding First Brigade. Report: Near Jackson, Miss., May 27, 1863 (Battle of Champion's Hill)'' "At 5.20 o'clock, Brig. Gen. Tilghman, who up to that time had commanded the brigade with marked ability, fell, killed by a shell from one of the enemy's guns, and the command devolved upon me as the senior colonel present. I cannot here refrain from paying a slight tribute to the memory of my late commander. As a man, a soldier, and a general, he had few if any superiors. Always at his post, he devoted himself day and night to the interests of his command. Upon the battlefield cool, collected, and observant, he commanded the entire respect and confidence of every officer and soldier under him, and the only censure ever cast upon him was that he always exposed himself too recklessly. At the time he was struck down he was standing in the rear of a battery, directing a change in the elevation of one of the guns. The tears shed by his men on the occasion, and the grief felt by his entire brigade, are the proudest tribute that can be given the gallant dead." ''General William W. Loring: Military Report'' "During this time Tilghman, who had been left with his brigade upon the road, almost immediately after our parting, met a terrible assault of the enemy, and when we rejoined him was carrying on a deadly and most gallant fight. With less than 1,500 effective men he was attacked from by 6,000 to 8,000 of the enemy with a fine park of artillery, but being advantageously posted, he not only haled them in check, but repulsed him on several occasions, and this kept open the only line of retreat left to the army. The bold stand of his brigade under the lamented hero saved a large portion of the army. Quick and bold in the execution of his plans, he fell in the midst of a brigade that loved him well, after repulsing a powerful enemy in deadly fight, struck by a cannon-shot. A brigade wept over the dying hero; alike beautiful as it was touching."

Posthumous commentary

''Maria I. Johnston: Novel published 1869'' Describing the arrival of Tilghman's body in Vicksburg, transported in a wagon and accompanied by his teenage son: "Stark and stiff lay the brave officer, his clothing and gloves covered with blood. And the gory stream congealing in the dark masses of his tangled hair." ''Jefferson Davis, President, Confederate States of America (CSA), 1878'' "The Greek who held the pass, the Roma who for a time held the bridge have been immortalized in rhyme and story. But neither of those more heroically, more patriotically, more singly served his country, than did Tilghman at Fort Henry, when approached by a large army, an army which rendered the permanent defense of the fort impossible, with a handful of devoted followers went into the fort and continued the defense until his brigade could retire in safety to Fort Donelson; then when that work was finished, when it was impossible any longer to make a defense, when the wounded and dying lay all around him, he, with the surviving remnants of his little band, terminated the struggle and suffered in a manner thousands of you have been prisoners of war know how to estimate. All peace and honor to his ashes, for he was among those, not the most unhappy, who went hence before our bitterest trials came upon us." ''F.W.M. published account: July 13, 1893 @ Plant City, Florida'' "General Tilghman directed the gun sergeant to train his gun, a 12-pound howitzer, and dislodge the enemy from the cabins. He dismounted from his horse and gave some directions about sighting the gun. While this was being done, a shell from one of the enemy's guns on the line exploded about fifty feet to the front. A ragged fragment of this shell struck the General in the breast, passing through him and killing the horse of his Adjutant a little farther to the rear. His death occurred, of course, very soon, and his remains were carried to the rear. That night they were started to Vicksburg, accompanied by his personal staff and son, Lloyd Tilghman, Jr., and the next evening they were buried in the city cemetery in Vicksburg. The last act of a brave man was to sight a field gun and direct the cutting of a shell fuse, so as to do the best execution upon the invaders of our country."

In memoriam

Brigadier_General_Lloyd_Tilghman_Vicksburg_Monument

The Lloyd Tilghman House and Civil War Museum is located at the Tilghman homestead in Paducah. On May 19, 1926, a statue of Tilghman was dedicated at the Vicksburg National Historical Park.

Tilghman's effects

A Presentation Confederate Flag and an inscribed sword and sword belt, worn by Tilghman when he was killed were sold by Heritage Auction Galleries on June 26, 2010. The items were passed down through his direct lineal descendants for almost 150 years until sold at auction.Confederate Battle Flag of Gen. Lloyd Tilghman brings $59,750 as top lot in Heritage $1.16 million Civil War Auction
(press release). Heritage Auctions. historical.ha.com. June 30, 2010. Retrieved 2017-10-22.

Notes

References

* Bush, Bryan S. ''Lloyd Tilghman: Confederate General in the Western Theatre'' Morley, MO: Acclaim Press, 2006. . * Eicher, John H., and

David J. Eicher David John Eicher (born August 7, 1961) is an American editor, writer, and popularizer of astronomy and space. He has been editor-in-chief of ''Astronomy'' magazine since 2002. He is author, coauthor, or editor of 23 books on science and American ...

, ''Civil War High Commands.'' Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001. . * Gott, Kendall D. ''Where the South Lost the War: An Analysis of the Fort Henry—Fort Donelson Campaign, February 1862''. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2003. . * Sifakis, Stewart. ''Who Was Who in the Civil War.'' New York: Facts On File, 1988. . * Warner, Ezra J. ''Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders.'' Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959. .