Pillow, Gideon Johnson, 1806-1878

Gideon Johnson Pillow was a general in the U.S. Army during the Mexican-American War and later served as a general for the Confederate States of America.

Born June 8, 1806, in Williamson County, Tennessee, Pillow grew up in Tennessee and graduated from the University of Nashville in 1827. He entered the legal profession in Columbia, Tennessee, becoming partners with future-president James K. Polk. In the early 1830s, Pillow’s public standing increased as he received an appointment as a district attorney general in Tennessee and received a commission as a brigadier general in the Tennessee Militia. His future was further boosted by the election of his friend James K. Polk as U.S. president in 1844.

When the Mexican-American War broke out in 1846, Polk appointed Pillow a brigadier general. He led troops in several battles, and was wounded at both Cerro Gordo and Chapultepec. Pillow was promoted to major general in 1847, but soon ran into conflict with Major General Winfield Scott when the latter accused Pillow exaggerating his role at various engagements—a charge supported by the fact that Pillow likely wrote an anonymous letter to a New Orleans newspaper crediting himself with the American battle victories at Contreras and Churubusco. When Scott arrested Pillow for insubordination and violating military regulations, Pillow wrote to President Polk with accusations that Scott had tried to bribe Mexican leader Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna to end the war. In response, Polk relieved Scott of command of U.S. forces in Mexico in February 1848. The matter was eventually settled with Pillow’s charges dropped and Scott reinstated as general-in-chief of the army, but critics of Pillow—including Scott—argued that he was self-serving and willing to lie for personal gain.

Pillow returned to Tennessee after the Mexican-American War and became involved in politics during the 1850s. He attended the 1850 Nashville Convention, which was a meeting among southern leaders to discuss possible responses if the federal government prohibited slavery in territories won from Mexico in the recent war. Some delegates proposed secession, but Pillow and a majority of the other attendees opposed disunion and supported a compromise with the north. Pillow was active in Democratic politics, unsuccessfully vying to be a vice presidential candidate in 1852 and 1856, as well as a failed bid to secure a seat in the U.S. Senate.

Pillow supported Tennessee when the state declared itself seceded from the Union at the outbreak of the Civil War. He received a commission as a major general in the state’s militia, and then in July 1861 received an appointment as brigadier general in the Confederate army. In September 1861, under orders from Major General Leonidas Polk, Pillow led Confederate troops into Kentucky as an effort to secure that state for the Confederacy. The move proved to be a monumental blunder, as the Kentucky government and many of its citizens saw the incursion as an assault upon their state’s neutrality, thereby securing Kentucky for the Union.

Pillow gained some fame in the Confederacy following the Battle of Belmont in December 1861, when his force held off an attack by Ulysses S. Grant. He was then placed in command of Confederate troops at Fort Donelson in February 1862, where he led a successful attack to break out of the fort before Grant’s entire force could surround it. Despite achieving that initial objective, Pillow inexplicably withdrew his soldiers for resupply, allowing Union forces to close the gap. With defeat inevitable, Pillow passed command of the fort to a subordinate and escaped before the Confederates surrendered.

The events at Fort Donelson marred Pillow’s reputation, and he was briefly suspended from command by Confederate president Jefferson Davis. However, in December 1862, Pillow received another chance at command when he was placed in charge of a brigade within the Army of Tennessee under General Braxton Bragg. During the Battle of Murfreesboro, December 31, 1862 to January 3, 1863, Pillow reportedly hid behind a tree while his brigade participated in an assault. Receiving criticism for his performance, Pillow was removed from field command and placed in charge of recruiting and conscription for the Army of Tennessee. During the final months of the war he served as Commissary General of Prisoners, before surrendering to Union forces in April 1865.

Pillow, who had been one of the wealthiest landowners in Tennessee in 1860, was bankrupt after the war. He rebuilt some of his wealth with a successful law practice in Memphis with former Tennessee governor Isham G. Harris. He died of yellow fever on October 8, 1878, in Arkansas. Pillow had been married twice, first to Mary Martin (who died in 1869) and then to Mary Eliza Dickson (who was forty years his junior). Pillow had eleven children with his first wife and three with his second wife. Pillow is buried in Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis, Tennessee.

(Wikipedia; FindaGrave; American Battlefield Trust)

Gideon Johnson Pillow belonged to the following social groups: