Early life

Oswald Tilghman was born on the old Talbot County plantation, Plimhimmon, near Oxford, Maryland

Oxford, Maryland

Oxford is a waterfront town and former colonial port in Talbot County, Maryland, United States. The population was 771 at the 2000 census.-History:Oxford is one of the oldest towns in Maryland...

 on March 7, 1841 His father, General Tench Tilghman, was a graduate of West Point military academy, and his mother was a daughter of John Leeds Kerr, United States senator from Maryland, 1841 to 1843. Matthew Tilghman

Matthew Tilghman

Matthew Tilghman was an American planter and Revolutionary leader from Maryland, who served as a delegate to the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1776.-Early life:...

, an ancestor of the family, was a member of the Continental congress at the time of the declaration of independence; and Colonel Tench Tilghman

Tench Tilghman

Tench Tilghman was an officer in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary war. He served as an aide de camp to General George Washington, achieving the rank of lieutenant colonel....

, another ancestor, served as one of Washington's aides'de'camp. Oswald Tilghman was educated at the Maryland Military Academy, at Oxford. His school days over, he went to Texas in 1859, and settled In Washington County

Engagement in the Civil War

When the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 began, he volunteered as a private in Company B, in Terry's Texas Rangers, of the Confederate army. He participated in the Battle of Shiloh

Battle of Shiloh

The Battle of Shiloh, also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing, was a major battle in the Western Theater of the American Civil War, fought April 6–7, 1862, in southwestern Tennessee. A Union army under Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant had moved via the Tennessee River deep into Tennessee and...

 and in the campaigns about Richmond, and was aide on the staff of his kinsman, General Lloyd Tilghman, who was killed in front of Vicksburg, Mississippi. During the Siege of Port Hudson

Siege of Port Hudson

The Siege of Port Hudson occurred from May 22 to July 9, 1863, when Union Army troops assaulted and then surrounded the Mississippi River town of Port Hudson, Louisiana, during the American Civil War....

, Oswald Tilghman commanded the Rock City artillery of Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...

—a heavy battery on the banks of the Mississippi river—and was the only one of the four officers of that battery who survived the siege. In March, 1863, he took active part, with his battery, in the destruction of the United States steam frigate Mississippi, of which vessel Admiral George Dewey

George Dewey

George Dewey was an admiral of the United States Navy. He is best known for his victory at the Battle of Manila Bay during the Spanish-American War...

 was then executive officer, when Admiral Farragut's fleet attempted to pass the Confederate batteries. For his bravery on this occasion, he was commended by Lieutenant Colonel de Gournay, who commanded the left wing of the Confederate batteries. But his military career was cut short by the capitulation of Port Hudson, after which he was held as a prisoner on Johnson's Island

Johnson's Island

Johnson's Island is a island in Sandusky Bay, located on the coast of Lake Erie, 3 miles from the city of Sandusky, Ohio. It was the site of a prisoner-of-war camp for Confederate officers captured during the American Civil War. Johnson's Island was the only Union prison exclusively for Southern...

 in Lake Erie until the conclusion of the war.

Career

When the conflict between North and South had been brought to a close, Tilghman returned to Talbot county and began his preparation for the legal profession. He read law with Senator Charles H. Gibson, was admitted to the bar, and has since been engaged in the practice of law and in the real estate business in his native county, residing at Foxley Hall, Easton, a colonial brick mansion built by Henry Dickinson, whose son, Charles Dickinson, was killed by General Andrew Jackson in a duel in Logan County, Ky., in 1806.

He was married in 1884 to Belle Harrison, daughter of Doctor Samuel A. Harrison, the local annalist of Talbot County. They have two children, a daughter, Mary Foxley Tilghman, and a son, Samuel Harrison Tilghman, a graduate in civil engineering of Lehigh University, class of 1907. Governor Wm. T. Hamilton, of Maryland, appointed Oswald Tilghman, in 1881, one of the two commissioners, with the rank of colonel, to represent the state at the Centennial Celebration of Cornwallis's surrender at Yorktown. On this occasion he wore the sword presented to Colonel Tench Tilghman by congress in 1781 for his especial service in bearing to the Continental Congress

Continental Congress

The Continental Congress was a convention of delegates called together from the Thirteen Colonies that became the governing body of the United States during the American Revolution....

in Philadelphia the official announcement from General Washington of the surrender of the British garrison at Yorktown. From 1893 to 1897 Colonel Tilghman was a member of the senate of Maryland, having been elected on the Democratic ticket. The state bureau of immigration was established in 1896 largely through his efforts. Colonel Tilghman has long been a personal friend of Governor Warfield, and in 1904 the latter appointed him secretary of state under his administration as governor.

Colonel Tilghman owned a valuable collection of Revolutionary relics and papers; he is a member of the Maryland Historical Society and of several patriotic and fraternal societies, including the Society of the Cincinnati of Maryland, of which he was the vice-president; the Maryland Society of Colonial Wars; the Masons; and the Odd Fellows. He has for several years represented the Maryland State Society in the General Society of the Cincinnati. He was president of the Board of Development of the Eastern Shore of Maryland, and was auditor of the circuit court of Talbot County for over twenty years. He was commander of Charles S. Winder Camp, U. C. V., and he also commanded the 1st Brigade of the Maryland Division of the United Confederate Veterans. He was the author of several historical and genealogical papers and addresses.