Although Gideon Pillow had opposed secession, Governor Isham Harris appointed him the senior major general in the Tennessee Militia as of May 9, 1861. In July, Jefferson Davis appointed him as brigadier general in the Confederate States Army. He commanded the troops...
We continue the discussion of Confederate generals at Fort Donelson to escape the surrender with the second-in-command, Gideon J. Pillow, who had himself and his chief-of-staff rowed across the Cumberland River after being placed in command by the fleeing John B....
This month, I’d like to take another story from Statesmen of the Confederate Cause by Burton J. Hendrick to tell the tale of the $15,000,000 in Confederate bonds. Having failed to gain English and French recognition in the first year of the American Civil War, the...
One element of the Battle of Fort Donelson which should surprise modern readers is the fact that the most senior Confederate officer present, John B. Floyd, elected to escape rather than share the fate of the soldiers under his command. Brigadier General John B. Floyd...
This time, I offer comments about a great reference book which I recently completed: Blue, Gray, and Red: Two Nurses’ Views of the Civil War. I received this book as a gift from my good friend, John P., whom also gave me the book Statesmen of the Lost Cause, a...
Early LifeLloyd Tilghman was born in “Rich Neck Manor”, Claiborne, Maryland, great-grandson of a Maryland representative to the Continental Congress and grand-nephew of a man who had served on George Washington’s staff during the American Revolution. He attended the...
When preparing the back-story for the characters in the Shiloh Trilogy, I needed to identify a particular fictional Union regiment as the home for Jamie Harper, Joshua Featherstone, Gus Magnusson, Johnny Cooke, and the others. I wanted to identify a unit which could...
While planning to write a series of historical novels set in the American Civil War (ACW) I needed to decide what would be the firearm of choice for the main character, James (Jamie) Harper. Although he serves in an infantry unit, I wanted Harper and his battalion to...
When I write, I use the close third person point-of-view (POV) to tell the stories in The Shiloh Trilogy. I actually have three POV characters. First, is Jamie Harper, an officer in the Union army and nominally the lead protagonist in all three books – he is the title...
