Alvan Cullem Gillem Alvan Cullem Gillem ( July 29 , 1830 – December 2 , 1875 ) was a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War . Although Southern - born , he remained loyal to the Federal government and fought in several battles in the Western Theater before commanding occupation troops in Mississippi and Arkansas during Reconstruction . He later played a prominent role in the Modoc War in 1873 . Early life and career . Gillem was born in Gainesboro in Jackson County , Tennessee , the son of Samuel Gillem . In 1851 , he graduated 11th in his class from the United States Military Academy and was assigned as a second lieutenant to the artillery . He was soon sent to the front lines in Florida to serve in a battery during the Second Seminole War until 1852 . He was then reassigned to the Texas frontier following the war . Civil War . With the outbreak of the Civil War , Gillem became a captain on May 14 , 1861 , initially serving under George H . Thomas . Gillem was chief quartermaster of the Army of the Ohio in the several Tennessee campaigns and was brevetted as a major for gallantry in the Battle of Mill Springs . He was appointed colonel of the 10th Tennessee Infantry in May 1862 and served for a time as the provost marshal of Nashville during the Federal occupation of the city . From June 1 , 1863 , until the close of the war , with rank of brigadier general of volunteers , he was active in Tennessee , where he was adjutant general . He commanded the troops guarding the Nashville and Northwestern railroad from June 1863 , until August 1864 . In a campaign to protect the loyal mountaineers in eastern Tennessee , his troops surprised and killed Confederate General John H . Morgan in Greeneville , on September 4 , 1864 . Operating later in the year near Marion , Virginia , Gillem performed well in combat against the Confederates and was again recognized for bravery , being brevetted as a colonel in the Regular Army . Gillem was vice - president of the convention ( January 9 , 1865 ) for the revision of the constitution of the State of Tennessee , and sat in the first $ 3 elected thereafter . Afterwards , Gillem commanded the Union cavalry in east Tennessee , and participated in an expedition to North Carolina which resulted in the capture of Salisbury . For this action , he was brevetted as a major general in the volunteer army , his third such citation of the war . Postbellum . Following the war , in January 1866 , Gillem was assigned command of the Fourth Military District , headquartered in Vicksburg , Mississippi and composed of the Federal occupation forces in Mississippi and Arkansas . He was mustered out of the volunteer army and commissioned as a colonel in the Regular Army on July 28 , 1866 . Gillem supervised the district until 1868 . He often feuded with the Radical Republicans in the United States Congress over his lenient treatment of ex - Confederate soldiers in his district . When Ulysses S . Grant assumed the Presidency in 1869 , Gillem was removed from the Fourth Military District in favor of Grant ' s personal friend Edward Ord . He was reassigned to duty in Texas , and later to California , where he was prominent in the military operations against the Modoc Indian s in 1873 . He was engaged in the attack at the Lava Beds on April 15 , 1873 . However , some of his troops were surprised and thoroughly beaten on April 26 at the Battle of Sand Butte , losing over 40 % of their strength . Following the so - called " Thomas - Wright Massacre , " many called for Colonel Gillem to be removed . On May 2 , the new commander of the Department of the Columbia , Brig . Gen . Jefferson C . Davis formally relieved Gillem of command , and personally assumed control of the army in the field . In 1875 , Gillem became seriously ill and returned home to Tennessee to recuperate . However , he died in the Soldier ' s Rest home near Nashville at the relatively young age of 45 . He was buried in the city ' s Mount Olivet Cemetery . Genealogy . Gillem married Margaret Jones ( 1838 - 1878 ) on ? < br > They had two children :