[165] made of 12 officers, 66 effective men and 16 others in hospital. In this gallant fight of a day he lost but five killed and sixteen disabled, and the entire command outside the fort was saved by his prolonged and heroic resistance. General Tilghman was a prisoner of war until his exchange in the fall of 1862, when he rejoined the army of the West, then in north Mississippi, and was put in command of the First brigade of Loring's division. At the battle of Corinth, Miss., he took a prominent part. During the retreat from Holly Springs to Grenada, Tilghman's brigade was assigned the responsible position of rear guard, and repeatedly gave battle to and held in check the enemy. Between four and five o'clock of the evening of May 16, 1863, he was killed on the battle-field of Champion's Hill. He was in command of his brigade, consisting of the Fifteenth and Twenty-second Mississippi regiments, First Louisiana, and Rayburn's and McLendon's batteries, on the extreme right of the line. They received the first fire of that battle, but the fight drifted to the left until after midday, when the enemy advanced in force against Loring's division, and after their first repulse threw forward a line of sharpshooters which, aided by artillery, maintained the action. These sharpshooters occupied a row of plantation cabins near the Confederate line, and were doing destructive work, when General Tilghman directed a gun to be trained upon them. He dismounted to give directions for sighting the piece, when a shell from the enemy exploded about fifty feet to the front, and a fragment tore through his body. He died very soon after receiving this terrible wound, and his body was carried to the rear, and subsequently interred at Vicksburg, escorted by his personal staff and his son, Lloyd Tilghman, Jr.
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[165] made of 12 officers, 66 effective men and 16 others in hospital. In this gallant fight of a day he lost but five killed and sixteen disabled, and the entire command outside the fort was saved by his prolonged and heroic resistance. General Tilghman was a prisoner of war until his exchange in the fall of 1862, when he rejoined the army of the West, then in north Mississippi, and was put in command of the First brigade of Loring's division. At the battle of Corinth, Miss., he took a prominent part. During the retreat from Holly Springs to Grenada, Tilghman's brigade was assigned the responsible position of rear guard, and repeatedly gave battle to and held in check the enemy. Between four and five o'clock of the evening of May 16, 1863, he was killed on the battle-field of Champion's Hill. He was in command of his brigade, consisting of the Fifteenth and Twenty-second Mississippi regiments, First Louisiana, and Rayburn's and McLendon's batteries, on the extreme right of the line. They received the first fire of that battle, but the fight drifted to the left until after midday, when the enemy advanced in force against Loring's division, and after their first repulse threw forward a line of sharpshooters which, aided by artillery, maintained the action. These sharpshooters occupied a row of plantation cabins near the Confederate line, and were doing destructive work, when General Tilghman directed a gun to be trained upon them. He dismounted to give directions for sighting the piece, when a shell from the enemy exploded about fifty feet to the front, and a fragment tore through his body. He died very soon after receiving this terrible wound, and his body was carried to the rear, and subsequently interred at Vicksburg, escorted by his personal staff and his son, Lloyd Tilghman, Jr.
Atlanta, Ga. 1899.
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