Early Life
Pillow was born in Williamson County, Tennessee, to Gideon Pillow and Ann Payne Pillow. He graduated from the University of Nashville in 1827 and practiced law in Columbia, Tennessee, as a partner of future President James K. Polk. Married Mary Elizabeth Maartin, March 24, 1831. He served as a brigadier general in the Tennessee Militia from 1833 to 1836.
In the Mexican-American War, Pillow joined the United States Army as a brigadier general in July 1846 and President Polk promoted him to major general on April 13, 1847. He was 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 the commander of the American forces in Mexico, Gen. Winfield Scott. An anonymous letter—actually written by Pillow—published in the New Orleans Delta on September 10, 1847, and signed "Leonidas", wrongfully credited Pillow for recent American victories at Contreras and Churubusco. The battles were actually won by Scott. When Pillow's intrigue was exposed, he was arrested by Scott and held for court-martial. Polk, defensive of Pillow, recalled Scott to Washington. During the trial that began in March 1848, Maj. Archibald W. Burns, a paymaster, claimed authorship of the "Leonidas" letter at Pillow's behest. Pillow escaped punishment, but was discharged from the Army in July 1848.
In his memoirs, Scott wrote that Pillow was "amaible 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 and end by the one as the other, and habitually boastful of acts of cleverness at the total sacrifice of moral character." Pillow's antagonism for Scott was reflected in the 1852 election for president, when he opposed Scott's candidacy, supporting instead a former subordinate of his in the Mexican-American War, Franklin Pierce. Pillow attempted to win the vice-presidential nomination, but was rejected. He tried, but failed, to win the nomination for vice president again in 1856.
Read more about this topic: Gideon Johnson Pillow
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