Alvan Cullem Gillem - Postbellum

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 Indians 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.