Indiana Men

The Union 44^th Indiana Infantry was organized October 24^th 1861 at Fort Wayne, Indiana.

A Fort Wayne, Indiana druggist, Hugh B Reed was made the Colonel of the 44^th Indiana when it was organized October 22^nd 1861.  The 44^th was made up of volunteers mostly from Indiana’s Tenth Congressional District in the northeastern part of the state.  They left for Henderson, Kentucky in December 1861 and went into camp at Calhoun, Kentucky.  In February 1862 they were moved to the Fort Henry area and then onto Fort Donelson, Tennessee, where the 44^th took heavy casualties during the siege of the fort.  Following this action they moved onto the Battle of Shiloh taking 210 casualties.  The men of the 44^th would also take part in the Siege of Corinth, Mississippi, and the Battles of Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, and Stones River.  They finished up their duty on provost guard duty at Chattanooga, Tennessee.

The 44^th was mustered out of Union service September 14^th 1865.  During their service the 44^th lost 80 killed and 229 who died from disease.

A Railroad Builder

Confederate General Lloyd Tilghman an engineer of railroads was killed May 16^th 1863 at the Battle of Champion Hill.

Lloyd Tilghman was born at Rich Neck Manor in Claiborne, Maryland January 18^th 1816, the son of James and Ann C (Shoemaker) Tilghman.  He received an appointment to West Point Military Academy, graduating in 1836 near the bottom of his class.  Tilghman was commissioned second lieutenant in 1^st United States Dragoons.  He resigned after three months of service.  Tilghman went to work in Panama and areas of the south constructing a number of railroads.  He settled in Paducah, Kentucky.

After the Civil War began Tilghman joined the Confederacy and became the Colonel of the 3^rd Kentucky Infantry.  He was promoted to Brigadier General on October 18^th 1861.  Tilghman took on the engineering work of building Fort Henry and Fort Donelson.  He didn’t choose the location for the forts which he stated in his report were in a “wretched military position”.  Tilghman was captured February 6^th 1862 when Fort Henry fell to Union General Ulysses S Grant, and was sent to Fort Warren in Boston, Massachusetts as a POW.  He was exchanged August 15^th 1862 for Union General John F Reynolds.  Tilghman returned in the fall and took command of a brigade in Confederate General Earl Van Dorn’s Army of the West.  He commanded artillery at the Second Battle of Corinth.

Tilghman was hit by a shell fragment and killed May 16^th 1863 at the Battle of Champion Hill.  He is buried in the Woodlawn Cemetery in New York City.

A great web site, if you like to more about Lloyd Tilghman is Paducah's General Lloyd Tilghman

Spike The Guns

Lieutenant John Vincent Johnston was the Union Navy commander on an expedition to spike the guns of Fort Number 1 on April 1^st 1862.

John Vincent Johnston was living in Cincinnati, Ohio in September 1861 when he joined the Union Navy.  He first served on the gunboat the USS St Louis as the First Master.  Johnston was on the gunboat which captured Fort Henry on the Tennessee River on February 6^th 1862.  He was the Union Navy commander in a combined Army – Union expedition on April 1^st 1862 to spike the guns of Fort Number 1 located just above the Confederate held Island Number 10 in the Mississippi.  For his actions in this expedition Johnston was promoted to Lieutenant.  During the bombing of Vicksburg, Mississippi Johnston was in command of the USS Forest Rose, running the Mississippi River.  His gunboat stopped as attack by Confederates on February 15^th 1864 saving the Union garrison at Waterford, Louisiana.  Johnston left the Navy June 23^rd 1864.

Johnston died in St Louis, Missouri April 23^rd 1912.

He was First In His Class

A career United States army officer James Birdseye McPherson was born November 14th 1828.

James Birdseye McPherson was born November 14th 1828 near Clyde, Ohio. He began his education at the Norwalk Academy in Ohio, before going on the graduate first in his class at West Point in 1853. His roommate at the Military Academy was John Bell Hood. McPherson was appointed to the Corps of Engineers, and taught for a year after his graduation at West Point.

At the beginning of the Civil War he was stationed in San Francisco, California. McPherson requested a transfer to the east, and received a position on the staff of Major General Henry W Halleck. McPherson was the Chief Engineer for Brigadier General Ulysses S Grant when the Union Army captured Forts Donelson and Henry. Following the Battle of Shiloh he was promoted to Brigadier General. In 1862 McPherson was given command of the XVII Corps in the Army of the Tennessee, and in 1864 he got command of the whole of the Army of the Tennessee when Major General William Tecumseh Sherman was promoted.

On July 22nd 1864 Union troops noticed that the Confederate soldier had pulled out of Atlanta, Georgia. Sherman felt the Confederates where evacuating, but McPherson argued that they were moving to attack the Union’s right flank. While this was being discussed four divisions under Confederate General William J Hardee flanked the Union XVII Corps. McPherson was riding toward his old Corp when he was confronted by a line of Rebels yelling for him halt. He turned his horse in an attempt to escape but was mortally wounded.

Four days after McPherson’s death Sherman wrote to his wife, telling her, "I lost my right bower in McPherson."