Gideon Johnson Pillow
Gideon Johnson Pillow Jr. was a senior officer of the Confederate States Army in the Western Theater of the American Civil War, having previously served as a general of United States Volunteers during the Mexican–American War. Before his military career, Pillow practiced law and was active in Democratic Party politics. He was a floor leader in support of the nomination of fellow Tennessean James K. Polk at the 1844 Democratic National Convention. In 1847, Pillow was commissioned a brigadier general of volunteers to serve in the Mexican–American War, where he was wounded at Cerro Gordo and Chapultepec and later promoted to major general, even when his superiors were unimpressed with his lack of military knowledge and his tendency to modify battle plans to the detriment of operations. However, controversy arose when, in a series of letters, Pillow tried to take what was perceived by some as undue credit for American victories at the expense of his commander, Major General Winfield Scott. Pillow was court-martialed for insubordination, but with President Polk's assistance, the court-martial was reduced to a court of inquiry, which in 1848 exonerated Pillow.
After the war, Pillow served as a delegate to the Nashville Convention of 1850, where he supported compromise. He remained active in supporting the Democratic Party. At the start of the Civil War in 1861, Pillow supported secession, and was commissioned a brigadier general in the Confederate Army in July. Pillow received the thanks of the Confederate Congress for driving off the Union force at the Battle of Belmont, Missouri.
Pillow controversially failed to exploit a temporary breakthrough of Union lines by his troops which might have allowed the Confederate garrison of Fort Donelson to escape at the Battle of Fort Donelson on February 15, 1862. The next night, before the surrender of the fort, Brigadier General John B. Floyd passed overall command of the fort to Pillow, who in turn passed it to Brigadier General Simon Buckner. Floyd and Pillow managed to personally escape with a few aides before Buckner surrendered the remaining garrison to the Union Army of Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant. These actions sent his military career and reputation into decline.
Pillow commanded a brigade at the Battle of Stones River in 1863, where he performed poorly, and was among the few generals in the army to praise the leadership of commanding General Braxton Bragg. Removed from combat duty, he worked mainly in recruiting assignments through the remainder of the war. Bankrupt after the war, Pillow recovered financially and resumed a successful legal career. He died near Helena, Arkansas, in 1878; initially buried in Helena, Pillow was later reinterred at Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis.
Early life and education
Pillow was born on June 8, 1806, in Williamson County, Tennessee, to Gideon Pillow and Ann Payne Pillow.He came from a well connected, property owning family with a reputation for Indian fighting and loyalty to Andrew Jackson. He graduated from the University of Nashville in 1827 and practiced law in Columbia, Tennessee, where he became friends with future President James K. Polk. Pillow married Mary Elizabeth Martin, March 24, 1831.
In 1831, Tennessee Governor William Carroll, a cousin who had been one of Jackson's lieutenants, appointed Pillow as district attorney general. Pillow served as a brigadier general in the Tennessee Militia from 1833 to 1836. Pillow played "an important role" in the 1844 Democratic Party convention which nominated Polk for president, although Pillow exaggerated his contribution to the exclusion of other prominent Polk supporters.
Early military career
Carroll appointed Pillow Tennessee's adjutant general in 1833, commissioning him a brigadier general. Pillow treated the position as largely ceremonial, the first in a path to higher office he hoped to attain. He stepped down after three years to return to practicing law. He bought the Clifton Place plantation near Columbia, which he eventually developed into one of the largest estates in the state, increasing his political influence. In 1844, he helped James K. Polk secure the Democratic nomination for president, which Polk won.Mexican War
When the Mexican–American War began shortly afterwards, Polk appointed Pillow brigadier general in the United States Volunteers, largely to keep an eye on Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott, both political rivals of Polk's. In Mexico, Pillow's superiors, many of them West Point graduates trained as career soldiers, were unimpressed by the minimal training and experience he had despite his high rank, as a citizen soldier. Assigned to Robert Patterson's encampment in Lomita, where he commanded the Second Brigade of the Second Division of Tennessee volunteers, one of his first orders canceled daytime guard duty, a popular move with the troops but a potential major security lapse. He also proposed a reorganization of the troops so divisive that Taylor had to personally resolve tensions. In another move that was associated with him for years afterwards, after ordering his troops to dig a ditch around their encampment, had them put the earth on the wrong side of the ditch, making it useless for defensive purposes. William B. Campbell, a colonel in the First Tennessee and later governor of Tennessee, said Pillow's was "one of the smallest capacity elevated to so high a command."Taylor, who described Pillow as having "much to learn" about military matters, left him and his troops behind when he later marched on Monterrey early in 1847. They saw some minor skirmishes during the Siege of Veracruz. Pillow made another widely noted misstep one night early in the battle when he ordered half of a company of Pennsylvania volunteers to stand guard on one side of a road while the others slept across from them, a formation that would likely have resulted in heavy casualties had the unit been attacked, leading even privates to hold his generalship in low esteem.
At the Battle of Cerro Gordo, Pillow disregarded orders and chose a more direct route up one of the ridges where the Mexicans under Antonio López de Santa Anna were positioned. His troops had less cover and had to ascend in single file. The Mexicans opened fire upon seeing them, forcing Pillow to attack the wrong position and ruining Scott's plan to have Pillow's troops serve as a diversionary force for the main U.S. attack. Attempting to get some clarification on how to regroup during the ensuing chaotic retreat, George McClellan found Pillow, his commander, hiding behind a bush in the rear when an errant canister wounded Pillow's arm, forcing him to retreat even further for medical attention, where he berated his subordinates for their failure to properly support him. Pillow sent McClellan to ask Scott for reinforcements, which were unavailable. When he returned, the Mexicans on the ridges had surrendered as Santa Anna had abandoned them in his retreat.
When Pillow returned to Tennessee to heal his arm afterwards, he was harshly criticized by others who had fought under him at Cerro Gordo. He published his own account of the battle, reflecting favorably on him. Pillow was promoted to major general shortly afterwards, primarily because he was to return to Mexico, and Polk wanted him to continue monitoring Scott's actions. Pillow believed the promotion was due to the military prowess he had displayed.
Pillow rejoined U.S. forces as they made their final drive towards Mexico City. He again disobeyed superior orders to avoid battle after cutting a road through the lava field at Padierna resulting in the Battle of Contreras. Scott came to the battlefield and found Pillow a mile and a half from his troops. That evening Pillow admitted to Scott that he had lost track of where his troops were, and Scott ordered Pillow to remain at headquarters the next day while Persifor Frazer Smith led the action that won the battle for the U.S.
For the remainder of the Battle for Mexico City, Pillow began differing with Scott's plans. He opposed the attack on Molino del Rey, and after the cannon foundry Scott believed was there turned out not to be, Pillow sent a private letter to Polk questioning Scott's judgement. Pillow also resisted his assignment to attack Chapultepec from the west, believing it would expose his troops to higher casualties while letting other commanders take the credit, an objection that held little sway with Scott. Early in the next day's fighting, he was wounded in the ankle, putting him out of action for what was effectively the rest of the war.
During the war he came into conflict with Scott. Pillow refused Scott's request that Pillow revise his exaggerated battle reports in which he took credit for the American victories at Contreras and Churubusco. Then, a letter written by Pillow under the pseudonym "Leonidas", published in the New Orleans Delta in September 1847, wrongfully credited Pillow with the victories at Contreras, including the plan of battle and command of all the forces engaged, and Churubusco. When Pillow's intrigue was exposed, he was arrested by Scott and held for court-martial for insubordination and violating regulations, along with Colonel James Duncan and Brigadier General William J. Worth.
Pillow wrote to President Polk about Scott's involvement in a bribery scheme proposed by Mexican leader Santa Anna for his help in ending the war without further bloodshed. Polk relieved Scott of command by a letter of February 18, 1848. Polk reduced the proceedings against Pillow, Duncan and Worth from a court martial to a court of inquiry which had no criminal implications and added that Pillow could question Scott about the bribery scheme. Polk and Secretary of War William L. Marcy chose the three members of the court for their hostility to Scott.
Proceedings began in March 1848 in Mexico City. Major Archibald W. Burns, a paymaster and Pillow protege, claimed authorship of the "Leonidas" letter, at Pillow's behest. When the court of inquiry took as much testimony as they could in Mexico City it reconvened in Frederick, Maryland. Scott left Mexico City the next day. The court reconvened in June with Scott ill. Scott dropped the charges against Worth and Duncan and Pillow was exonerated when the court announced their findings on July 1, 1848. Scott resumed his duties as general-in-chief of the army early that month. While the affair had cost Pillow politically, it benefited Polk by ending Scott's presidential aspirations.
Pillow was discharged from the United States Volunteers in July. In early 1849, two other courts of inquiry cleared Pillow of any misconduct during the war. Pillow assisted Roswell S. Ripley in writing The war with Mexico.
In his memoirs, Scott wrote that Pillow was "amiable and possessed of some acuteness, but the only person I have ever known who was wholly indifferent in the choice between truth and falsehood, honesty and dishonesty:—ever as ready to attain an end by the one as the other, and habitually boastful of acts of cleverness at the total sacrifice of moral character."
On the other hand, Pillow's friend and patron, President Polk, stated after the court of inquiry was closed: "General Pillow is a gallant and highly meritorious officer, and has been greatly persecuted by General Scott, for no other reason than that he is a Democrat in his politics and was supposed to be my personal and political friend."