page_title: Gideon Johnson Pillow
section_title: Mexican–American War
hierarchical_section_title: Gideon Johnson Pillow / Early life / Mexican–American War
caption_attribution_description: English: American soldier and Confederate General Gideon Pillow (1806-1878). Tennessee Portrait Project
context_page_description: Gideon Johnson Pillow was an American lawyer, politician, speculator, slaveowner, United States Army major general of volunteers during the Mexican–American War and Confederate brigadier general in the American Civil War.
  Before his military career, Pillow practiced law and was active in Democratic Party politics. He was a floor leader in support of the nomination of fellow-Tennessean James K. Polk at the 1844 Democratic National Convention. In 1847, Pillow was commissioned a brigadier general of volunteers to serve in the Mexican–American War, and was later promoted to major general. He performed reasonably well, and was wounded that year at Cerro Gordo and Chapultepec. However, controversy arose when, in a series of letters, Pillow tried to take what was perceived by some as undue credit for American victories at the expense of his commander, Major General Winfield Scott. Pillow was court-martialed for insubordination, but with President Polk's assistance, the court-martial was reduced to a court of inquiry, which in 1848 exonerated Pillow.
  After the war, Pillow served as a delegate to the Nashville Convention of 1850, where he supported compromise.
context_section_description: During the Mexican–American War, Pillow joined the United States Army with an appointment from President Polk as a brigadier general of volunteers July 1, 1846. He was promoted to major general of volunteers on April 13, 1847. He displayed bravery in battle, being wounded in the right arm at the Battle of Cerro Gordo and in the left leg at Chapultepec.
  During the war he came into conflict with one of the principal commanders of the American forces in Mexico, Major General Winfield Scott. The quarrel began when Scott asked Pillow to revise his exaggerated battle reports in which Pillow took credit for the American victories at the Battles of Contreras and Churubusco, but Pillow refused.
  Although Pillow had performed reasonably well despite some mistakes in troop dispositions, the battles were still won by troops under the overall command of Scott.
  Then, an anonymous letter—actually written by Pillow—published in the New Orleans Delta on September 10, 1847, and signed "Leonidas", wrongfully credited Pillow with the victories at Contreras, including the plan of battle and command of all the forces engaged, and Churubusco.
  When Pillow's intrigue was exposed, he was arrested by Scott and held for court-martial for insubordination and violating regulations, along with Colonel James Duncan and Brigadier General William J. Worth.
  Pillow wrote to President Polk about Scott's involvement in a bribery scheme proposed by Mexican leader Antonio López de Santa Anna for his help in ending the war without further bloodshed. Polk relieved Scott of command by a letter of February 18, 1848.
  Polk reduced the proceedings against Pillow, Duncan and Worth from a court martial to a court of inquiry which had no criminal implications and added that Pillow could question Scott about the bribery scheme. Polk and Secretary of War William L. Marcy chose the three members of the court for their hostility to Scott.
  During the court of inquiry that began in March 1848 in Mexico City, Major Archibald W. Burns, a paymaster and Pillow protege, claimed authorship of the "Leonidas" letter, at Pillow's behest. When the court of inquiry took as much testimony as they could in Mexico City, on April 21, 1848 they adjourned to reconvene in Frederick, Maryland. Scott left Mexico City the next day. The court reconvened on June 5, 1848, with Scott ill. Scott dropped the charges against Worth and Duncan and Pillow was exonerated when the court announced their findings on July 1, 1848. Scott resumed his duties as general-in-chief of the army early that month.
  Pillow was discharged from the Army (volunteers) on July 20, 1848. In early 1849, two other courts of inquiry cleared Pillow of any misconduct during the war. Pillow assisted Roswell S. Ripley in writing The war with Mexico.
  In his memoirs, Scott wrote that Pillow was "amiable and possessed of some acuteness, but the only person I have ever known who was wholly indifferent in the choice between truth and falsehood, honesty and dishonesty:—ever as ready to attain an end by the one as the other, and habitually boastful of acts of cleverness at the total sacrifice of moral character."
  On the other hand, Pillow's friend and patron, President Polk, stated after the court of inquiry was closed: "General Pillow is a gallant and highly meritorious officer, and has been greatly persecuted by General Scott, for no other reason than that he is a Democrat in his politics and was supposed to be my personal and political friend."
caption: Portrait of General Pillow by Washington B. Cooper
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