Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1913-02-12
OF HISTORIC VALUE.

Tic Nl cSAeALS VA
Mrs. Mary Tillnan Of
This County.
Editor of the Edgefeld Advertiser,
Edgefeld, S. G.
Dear Mr.. Minis: Having had oc-
casion recently to look up Press
Brooks speech on the pension to
Mary E. Tillman, and thinking pos
sibly you might like to reprint it in
the Advertiser, I send you here
with copy. Her husband was
my second cousin. My brother
Thomas, the eldest of our family,
was killed at the battle of Churu-
busco two weeks after l was born,
and the four Tillman names are on
the Palmetto Monument at the State
House Grounds in Columbia. One
of Mary Tillman's SONS was in an
Alabama regiment, and of course
~his name is not on the Palmetto
Monument.
l hope you are well these days.
Very sincerely yours,
B. r. Tillman.
From the Congressional Globe of April
16, 1856. ).
MRS. MARY E. TILLMAN.
Mr.. Olive, of New York, from
the Committee on Invalid Pensions,
reported bill for the re,;ef of Ma
~ E. TilIm.n, which was read a
first and Sc, nd time by its title.
MIR. BrooAs. Mr.. Speaker: l beg
the indulgence of the House to make
a few remal..s explanatory of the
merits of this bill. The bill itself
is the unanimous report of the com
nittee to which was referred the
petition of Mrs. Mary K. Tillman,
resident of ny district, who when
the requisition was mlde on the
State of South Carolina for troops
for the Mexican war, gave to the
service of f:l1es country, every mem
Der of her family at the time capa-
bic of bearing arms. They were
three hight led, spirited sons, and
the husband of her bosom.
All went, but not one returned to
dry mothers tears, with the story
of the gallantry OF her soldier boys.
The bones of one now lie at
Saltillo, anu.ner fell al Jalipa, the
father was buried beside the castle
walls of Perote, and the last reach
ed the goal at once of his earthly
career and of his youthful ambi-
tion, at the capital of Mexico.
With strange aud crushing fa-
tality, about the very time that this
harvest Of sorrow was ripening for
this woman in foreign land, her
only remaining son, in the dis
charge of duties which he was
too young to perform, and which
were devolved upon him i'll
consequence of the absence of his
older brothers, by q fall from his
horse became the victim of confirm
ed paralysis. This lady is thus left
in the decline of lie, with d help
less child and al infant daughter lie
pendent upon her personal exer-
lions for their and her own sup
port.
This is the narrative of her petit
tion. and upon it she builds the
hope that her country will remern-
Der her sacrifices, and requite her
services. BY the laws of nature,
and of regulated society, the, SER
vices of a minor are due to it's pa
rent; and we, who are the Repre-
sentatives of the country which has
been benefited by the exertions Of
the children, ought not and will.
not forget the obligation we owe
the mother.
In support OF the facts set forth
in the petition, it is my misfortune
to be witness in chief. Those whom
the petitioner gave to the service of
her country were my immediate
neighbors and friends. One of her
SONS volunteered in the Alabama
regiment, and in the company coin
lnanded by his uncle, Captain Gail
man. The father and two other
sons enrolled in my company and
were mu stored into the service of
the United States at Charleston,
and under my command.
Considerations of personal at
tschnent might, possibly did, ia
4I.,n..n tl,nrn IN, :nin;,n,r Tho .,rr,, y