Davis Tillson Battle Report for Second Bull Run

Collection

Identifier: MSS-4009

Scope and Contents

The report from Tillson to his commander, General Irvin McDowell, through McDowell's chief of staff, Colonel Edmund Schriver, about the Union's artillery in three actions of the second Manassas (Bull Run) campaign in 1862. Actions covered include Rappahannock Station (August 22, 1862), Brawner's Farm (August 28, 1862), and Second Manassas (August 29-30, 1862). Tillson's report provides great detail and significant primary information about famous and dramatic battles.

Dates

1862 September 30

Creator

Tillson, Davis (Author, Person)

Physical Description

written on legal-sized, watermarked pages; evidence of careful tearing at left edge suggests this was removed from an order book; folds and holes at the top of the pages indicates the later inclusion in a spindle book; pages in very good condition; written in a very legible hand.

Biographical / Historical

Davis Tillson was born in Rockland, Maine, on April 14, 1830. He spent two years at West Point but resigned due to a foot injury that eventually necessitated his foot be amputated. He was elected to the Maine legislature in 1857 and in 1858 was named as the state's adjutant-general. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Tillson resigned and joined the Second Battery of the First Maine Mounted Light Artillery and was made a captain when the battery mustered in November of 1861.

In April 1862, the Second Battery was ordered to Washington DC where it was attached to the Second Brigade of General Irvin McDowell's Second Division in the Army of the Rappahannock. Tillson was promoted to major in May and was made chief of artillery in General Edward Ord's division. In August he commanded the artillery in McDowell's Third Corps as chief of artillery and served as such during the three day artillery fight at Rappahannock Station and at the Second Battle of Bull Run. He was promoted to lieutenant in December and assigned as inspector of artillery. He was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers in March 1863 and was ordered to Cincinnati, Ohio. While there, he raised and organized two regiments of heavy artillery. That December he was ordered to Knoxville, Tennessee, to supervise the defensive fortifications there. He was also given command of the Second Brigade of the Fourth Division in the Twenty-third Corps, which he led in several engagements.

While in Knoxville he requested permission to raise a regiment of colored artillery; the First Regiment Heavy Artillery US Colored Troops was mustered into serve in February 1864 and was assigned to Tillson's Second Brigade. The Third North Carolina mounted infantry, also made up of colored troops, was given command of the the District of East Tennessee in January 1865, and ended the war in command of the Fourth Division Twenty-third Corps.

After the war Tillson was retained in the service and was in charge of the Freedman's Bureau in Tennessee. In January 1867 he retired from the military and returned to Maine in 1868 where he established a granite quarry. Granite from Tillson's quarry on Hurricane Island in Penobscot Bay is one of the major components of the Washington Monument. Tillson died on April 30, 1895.

Extent

0.05 Linear Feet (15 page report)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Overview

Report from Tillson to his commander, General Irvin McDowell, through McDowell's chief of staff, Colonel Edmund Schriver, about the Union's artillery in three actions of the second Manassas (Bull Run) campaign in 1862.

Provenance

purchased from Abraham Lincoln Book Shop, Inc., 2014

Physical Description

General

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