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

The Second Neck Wound Killed Him

Confederate General John Gregg died October 7th 1864 during the Siege of Petersburg.


John Gregg was born September 28th 1828 in Lawrenceville, Alabama the son of Nathan and Sarah Pearsell [Camp] Gregg. He graduated from LaGrange College in 1847 and taught mathematics at the school. Gregg would go on the study law at Tuscumbia, Alabama. He moved in 1852 to Texas, settling in Fairfield, Texas, where he would serve as district judge until 1860. Gregg was one of the founders of the “Freestone County Pioneer” a secessionist newspaper.

Gregg served in the Provisional Confederate Congress on February 15th 1861, resigning in August 1861 to enter the Confederate Army. Returning to Texas Gregg formed the 7th Texas Infantry. As their Colonel, Gregg and the 7th Texas saw their first action at the Battle of Fort Donelson in February 1862. Gregg along with most of the garrison was captured and sent to Fort Warren in Boston, Massachusetts. He was exchanged August 15th 1862 and promoted to Brigadier General. During the Battle of Chickamauga Gregg was wounded in the neck. After recovering he was placed in command of Hood’s Texas Brigade, a part of the Army of Northern Virginia. During the Siege of Petersburg, Gregg was shot a second time in the neck and killed along the Charles City road near Richmond, Virginia, while leading a counterattack on October 7th 1864. Gregg’s widow Mary Frances [Garth] Gregg traveled through the siege lines to bring his body back for interment in the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Aberdeen, Mississippi.

The Postmaster Who Made Money

John Henninger Reagan a Texas Democrat and the Postmaster General of the Confederacy died March 6th 1905.

John Henninger Reagan was born October 8th 1818 in Gatlinburg, Sevier County, Tennessee, the son of Timothy Richard and Elizabeth [Lusk] Reagan. He left Tennessee for Texas when he was nineteen, where he worked as surveyor from 1839 to 1843. Reagan studied for the law and began a practice in 1846. He was elected to Congress in 1857 where he mildly supported the Union until it became clear that Texas would secede and Reagan resigned.

Reagan participated in the secession convention in Austin, Texas. When Texas voted to leave the Union they voted Reagan to the Provisional Confederate Congress. Jefferson Davis didn't let him serve, instead appointing him to lead the Confederate Postal System. Reagan sent an agent to Washington with letters to certain heads of the United States Post Office asking them to come to work for him, and most did. Reagan had the Confederate Post Office up and running smoothly in only six weeks. Despite the difficulties of moving mail during the war, the Confederate Post Office actually turned a profit. When Richmond Virginia fell to the Union Army on April 2nd 1865, Reagan left with the rest of the Confederacy‘s government, he was captured May 10th 1865 near Irwinville, Georgia. He was imprisoned in Fort Warren in Boston, Massachusetts with Confederate Vice President Alexander Hamilton Stephens. Reagan was released late in 1865 and he went home to Palestine, Texas.

Reagan help the effort to have the republican governor Edmund J Davis removed from office. Then Texas sent him back to Congress, where he served from March 4th 1875 to March 3rd 1887. The state elected him to the Senate in 1887 and he served there until 1891, when he resigned to become the chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission. Reagan wrote a memoir, and was one of the founders of the Texas State Historical Society. He died of pneumonia at his home in Palestine, Texas March 6th 1905. He was the last member of the Confederate government to die.