USA > Maryland > Talbot County > History of Talbot county, Maryland, 1661-1861, Volume I > Part 5
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18 The house of Col. Tilghman was situated upon Lombard street, near Howard, opposite the meeting house of the Friends.
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THE WORTHIES OF TALBOT
tion, when he visited Baltimore-joyful days, to be marked by a whiter stone.
While thus treading the difficult path of a busy career, yet always "Wearing the white flower of a blameless life;"
while enjoying the comforts and delights of a happy home which refine- ment graced and which affection ruled; while surrounded by kind and appreciating friends, followed by the honoring respect of his fellow citizens, and distinguished above most others by the high regard and warm attachment of the most notable man of his day; while wealth accumulated and flattered him with the prospect of affluence and ele- gant ease; the one bitter drop in the cup of life that flavored every draught, was the presence of that malady which he had contracted through hardship and exposure endured while in the army, and which without pause had been making inroads upon his constitution. The warnings he received by his occasional illnesses, when the nature of the disease gave small hope of complete restoration, were of little more service than to exhort one, who needed no such exhortation, to temper- ateness and regularity of living. Early in the year 1786 his disease was evidently approaching a crisis, which he was encouraged by his friends and physicians to expect would be favorable. In a letter written to his father-in-law in February of that year, after the more painful symp- toms of a severe attack of hepatic abscess had abated, he expressed a hope, that having passed with safety the most critical period, he would soon be able to enjoy his usual health, a hope which he seems to have shared with his medical advisers. But soon there was a return to the same distressing symptoms, of which there was no alleviation, but a gradual increase in severity until the 18th of April, when he was relieved of his sufferings by the kindly hand of death, at the early age of forty- one years. His illness was assuaged, as far as this was possible, by all the attention and care which the most affectionate solicitude could bestow, and the bitterness of death itself by the consolations of religion, for he held to the faith of his fathers, which was that of the church of England. His body was interred in the old burial ground of Saint Paul's, in the city of Baltimore, whence it was removed to the cemetery on Lombard street, where his remains still lie.14
"Multis ille bonis flebilis occidit."
14 The following inscription may be found upon a plain slab over his grave in the burial ground, no longer used for the interment of the dead, situated on Lom- bard street between Green and Paca streets, in the city of Baltimore:
.
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LIEUT. COLONEL TENCH TILGHMAN
He died lamented by all good men. At his funeral his fellow citizens and brethren in arms gave every suitable token of their appreciation of
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In Memory of Col. Tench Tilghman, Who died April 18th, 1786, In the 42nd year of his age, Very much lamented. He took an early and active part In the great contest that secured The Independence of The United States of America. He was an Aid-de-Camp to His Excellency General Washington Commander in chief of the American armies, And was honored With his friendship and confidence, And He was one of those Whose merits were distinguished And Honorably rewarded By the Congress But Still more to his Praise He was A good man.
After the death of the widow of Col. Tilghman, their daughter, Mrs. Nicholas Goldsborough, and grandson, General Tench Tilghman, erected a handsome monument to her, which became also a cenotaph to him, at Plimhimmon near Oxford, Talbot county, Maryland. This monument, consisting of a pedestal and obelisk, has inscribed upon it the following epitaphs:
To Mrs. Anna Maria Tilghman.
The affection and veneration of a daughter and grandson have caused them to erect this monument to Anna Maria Tilghman, daughter of the Hon. Matthew Tilghman and widow of Lt. Col. Tilghman. Her pure character, combining every Christian grace and virtue, attracted the devoted love of her family connections, and the admiration and esteem of all who knew her.
Born July 17th, 1755. Died Jan. 13th, 1843.
Tench Tilghman, Lt. Col. in the Continental army and Aid-de-camp of Wash- ington, who spoke of him thus: He was in every action in which the main army was concerned. A great part of the time he refused to receive his pay. While living no man could be more esteemed, and since dead none more lamented. No one had imbibed sentiments of greater friendship for him than I had done. He left as fair a reputation as ever belonged to a human character.
Died April 18th, 1786. Aged 42 years.
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THE WORTHIES OF TALBOT
his worth, and of their affectionate regard. The public journals, both of the city of Baltimore and of Philadelphia, at a time when it was not so common as now to praise the dead almost without discrimination, published obituary notices, which were expressive of the general sorrow for his early demise, and of the high esteem in which he was held where- ever his character was known. Nor were these public testimonials the only tributes to his worth. Private letters from persons of the first distinction, attest his merit, and furnish his best eulogium. Mr. Sparks in his Life and Writings of Washington says: "Gen. Washington's correspondents spoke of his death with much warmth of feeling." Robert Morris said:
You have lost in him a most faithful and valuable friend. Hewasto me the same. I esteemed him very much and I lament his loss exceed- ingly.
Gen. Knox in a letter to his widow, hereafter quoted in full, says:
Death has deprived you of a most tender and virtuous companion, and the United States of an able and upright patriot. When time shall have smoothed the severities of your grief, you will derive consolation from the reflection that Colonel Tilghman acted well his part in the theatre of human life, and that the supreme authority of the United States have expressly given their sanction to his merit.
But, considering their source, as well as their character, the highest testimonials were those which proceeded from Gen. Washington him- self. To be praised by this great man is fame. In a letter to Thomas Jefferson dated August 1st, 1786, he says:
You will probably have heard of the death of Gen. Greene before this reaches you; in which case you will in common with your countrymen have regretted the loss of [so great, and so honest a man. Gen. McDou- gall, who was a brave soldier and a disinterested patriot, is also dead. He belonged to the legislature of his state. The last act of his life was (after being carried on purpose to the senate), to give his voice against the emission of a paper currency. Col. Tilghman, who was formerly of my family, died lately, and left as fair a reputation as ever belonged to a human character. Thus some of the pillars of the revolution fall. May our country never want props to support the glorious fabric.
Again in a letter of condolence addressed to Mr. James Tilghman, the father of Col. Tilghman, dated June 5th, 1786, at Mount Vernon, a letter the original of which is sacredly preserved by his family, and from which this extract is made, Gen. Washington uses these words:
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LIEUT. COLONEL TENCH TILGHMAN
Of all the numerous acquaintances of your lately deceased son, and amidst all the sorrowings that are mingled on that melancholy occasion, I may venture to assert (that excepting those of his nearest relatives) none could have felt his death with more regret than I did, because no one entertained a higher opinion of his worth or had imbibed senti- ments of greater friendship for him than I had done. That you, sir, should havefelt the keenest anguish for this loss, I can readily conceive- the ties of parental affection, united with those of friendship could not fail to have produced this effect. It is however a dispensation, the wisdom of which is inscrutable; and amidst all your grief, there is this consolation to be drawn; that while living no man could be more es- teemed, and since dead, none more lamented than Col. Tilghman.
One so praised, and by such a man, is surer of an immortality of fame, than those for whom a Roman senate once decreed a triumph.
The order of congress, to which reference has already been made, pass- ed upon the occasion of the surrender at Yorktown, of which happy event Col. Tilghman was deputed the messenger to bear the intelli- gence to that body, that there should be presented to this officer a horse and a sword, as a token of the gratification experienced upon the recep- tion of the news and also as a recognition of the merit and services of the herald himself, to which the letter of the commander-in-chief to the president had so pointedly called attention, and so explicitly asked some public testimonial, was not carried fully into effect until after the death of him whom it meant to honor. He had the gratification, however, before his demise, to receive from Gen. Knox, secretary of war, a letter dated Dec. 7th, 1785, in which was inclosed an order on the treasury for four hundred dollars, to purchase the horse and accoutrements. This letter concluded thus: "I expect in a month or two to receive all the swords which were voted by congress as testimonials of their special approbation. Upon receiving them I shall have the pleasure of trans- mitting yours." Unfortunately the declining health of Col. Tilghman deprived him of the gratification of mounting the horse, and his death soon after, of the pleasure of wearing or even receiving the sword, voted by his country. Soon after his decease, however, Mrs. Tilghman was the recipient of a letter from Gen. Knox as flattering to the memory of her late husband as it was gratifying to herself, of which the following is а сору:
War Office of the United States, New York, May 30, 1786.
MADAM:
I have the honor to enclose for your satisfaction, a copy of a resolve of congress of the 29th October, 1781.
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THE WORTHIES OF TALBOT
During the last year I had the honor of presenting to Col. Tilghman the horse, agreeably to the direction of the resolve, and I then mentioned to him that I should forward the sword as soon as it should be finished.
But death, the inevitable tribute of our system, has permanently deprived you of the most tender and virtuous companion, and the United States of an able and upright patriot. While you are overwhelmed with affliction, your friends unavailingly condole with you on an event which they could not prevent, and to which they also must submit.
When time shall have smoothed the severities of your grief, you will derive consolation from the reflection that Col. Tilghman acted well his part on the theatre of human life, and that the supreme authority of the United States, have expressly given their sanction to his merit.
The sword directed to be presented to him, which I have the honor to transmit to you, will be an honorable and perpetual evidence of his merit and of the applause of his country.
I have the honor to be, Madam, with perfect respect, your most obedient and very humble servant, H. KNOX.
The sword thus gracefully presented to the widow of Col. Tilghman, and so sadly received by her, was piously preserved with many other relics associated with his military career; and now, having passed through the hands of two generations of his descendants, it remains in the pos- session of his great grandson Oswald Tilghman, Esq., of Easton, Mary- land.15
Upon the institution of the society of the Cincinnati in 1783, for the purpose of perpetuating "as well the remembrance of the late bloody conflict of eight years, as the mutual friendships which were formed under the pressure of common danger," Col. Tilghman became a member, and received as a present from the president general, his excellency, George Washington, the order of decoration of this society, which yet remains in the hands of his descendant, Mr. Oswald Tilghman, in the same condition as it was presented. A grandson, Gen. Tench Tilgh- man, was president of the society for Maryland, at the time of his death in 1874, and had been appointed its historiographer.
Col. Tilghman left two children, daughters, one of whom was a post- humous child. The eldest of these married Mr. Tench Tilghman, son of Colonel Peregrine Tilghman, of Hope, from whom has sprung a nu-
15 This sword was made in Paris. It is the usual officers' dress sword with rapier blade and gold and silver mountings. Upon the handle is engraved the insignia of the Society of the Cincinnati, and these words: "Presented to Lieut. Col. Tench Tilghman by Congress, Oct. 19, 1781."
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LIEUT. COLONEL TENCH TILGHMAN
merous family. The youngest married Col. Nicholas Goldsborough, of Ottwell, from whom also has come many descendants. All of these have a just pride in an ancestor whose life illustrated some of the best virtues of human character, and many have exhibited traits not un- worthy of their distinguished lineage. After the death of her husband Mrs. Tilghman returned to her father's house on Bay-side, of Talbot county, but subsequently removed to her beautiful estate of Plimhimmon, near Oxford, in the same county, which Mr. Matthew Tilghman had purchased for his daughter. Here she lived in great comfort and sim- ple elegance to the advanced age of eighty-eight years, surrounded by her children and her children's children, and loved and venerated by all who were privileged to come within the circle of her acquaintance or scope of her charities. Pious affection has dedicated a handsome monument to her memory and that of her husband, as has before been mentioned.
Of Col. Tilghman there are several portraits, one, a miniature, by Charles Willson Peale, taken from life, and represented to be a very exact likeness, is in the hands of a granddaughter, Mrs. Margaretta (Golds- borough) Hollyday. From this has been taken, by heliotype process, the portrait that accompanies this memoir. In the painting, more meritorious than well known, of the capitulation at Yorktown, by Charles Willson Peale, now in the house of delegates of the state of Mary- land at Annapolis, Col. Tilghman is represented in a life-size figure stand- ing beside Gen. Washington, holding in his hands a scroll, inscribed "Arti- cles of Capitulation, York, Gloster, and dependencies, April 19, 1781." As this picture was executed soon after the event it commemorates, it is believed the portraits were taken from life, or from studies from life. That of Washington is regarded as especially accurate, both as to fea- tures and bearing. As Mr. Peale was an acquaintance and friend of Col. Tilghman, it is thought the portrait of him, one of the principal figures in the painting, is equally accurate. Lafayette stands beside him. In the Athenaeum at Hartford, Connecticut, there is a painting by Col. John Trumbull, representing a scene in the battle of Trenton. It is thought by some critics to be the most impressive of the works of this artist in that celebrated collection. The central group is composed of Gen. Washington, Col. Tilghman, Col. Harrison, Col. Smith, and the wounded Hessian officer Col. Rahl. The three first mentioned are mounted. The representation of Col. Tilghman in this painting also, is thought to be a true portrait. There is a fourth portrait in the city
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THE WORTHIES OF TALBOT
of Trenton, in a painting, a particular description of which has not been obtained.
The personal appearance of Col. Tilghman was that of a gentleman of medium height and slender form. His complexion was fresh and florid, his eyes gray, and his hair a rich auburn, worn in queue, according to the fashion of the day. He was not insensible to the advantages of dress, in which he was scrupulously neat and regardful of the mode. His modesty gave to his bearing the reserve of hauteur, and though repelling familiarity, he was never wanting in courtesy, while to friends his manners were most cordial.
In this memoir the extravagance of praise, to which the biographer is prone, has been shunned as not befitting the ingenuous character of him whose memory it is designed to refresh and perpetuate. If the merits of Col. Tilghman had been fewer in number and lower in order than they really were, there still would be no need to exaggerate them in order to commend him to the esteem and admiration of good men. Even the eulogist seeking how best to praise him, finds "the simple truth his highest skill"-finds that he cannot better speak of him than by a frank relation of his life; and that any words spoken of him, not marked by the same fairness and candor that belonged to him of whom they should be uttered, would be rebuked by recollections of his pure and upright character. It is not pretended that he belonged to that small class of men, the very great
"Lights of the world and demigods of fame:"
men who by their deeds have changed the fortunes of nations; who have enlightened the world by their discoveries in science, benefited it by their inventions of usefulness, or delighted it with their creations in art or liter- ature. As a soldier he was no leader of great armies to victory or destruc- tion; as a citizen he was no projector of novel policies of government to bless or blight his country; as a man of affairs he was no pioneer of a new commerce, no founder of a new industry, to bring riches or ruin upon the land. He was none of these. He was the patriot soldier with whose motives mingled no desire of personal aggrandisement nor ignoble ambition, as his long and unpaid service of his country, and "that sub- lime repression of himself" in surrendering precedence of promotion to others, for the good of the cause, attest. He was the honorable merchant, who in his dealings knew not how to deviate from the line of rectitude; whom no suggestions of political passion could tempt to wrong even the enemies of his country; whom no opportunities, af-
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LIEUT. COLONEL TENCH TILGHMAN
forded by unjust laws, invited to an evasion of his obligations. To his perfect probity let his provision, when the war broke out, for the full payment of his English creditors, and his refusal to avail himself of the legal authorization of the payment of debts in a depreciated currency, although debts to him had thus been paid to his great loss, bear witness. He carried the virtues of chivalry into commerce-honor and courage. There is no evidence that he expected success in his mercantile adven- tures through any other or more dubious expedients than industry, perseverence, self-reliance and frugality: and all of these qualities of the merchant, in the letters he has left behind him, he speaks of, and claims to cultivate in his business. As a citizen of the new nation, he interested himself in every public measure projected for the perfecting that edifice, in laying the foundations of which he had participated. Disdaining rather than seeking official position, he was not negligent to inform himself upon those fundamental questions of government and state policy which were then occupying the minds of thoughtful men, in those years of uncertainty, confusion and danger, that succeeded the war, and he proved himself not inapt in giving direction to the political sentiment of the community of which he was a conspicuous and honored member. His letters, written during and after the revolutionary con- test, gave evidence of political perspicacity, as well as of his independ- ence of thought and disinterestedness of action. They indicate that he possessed many of the qualifications which belong to politicians of the best, if not of the highest order, and that his state in giving a soldier to the American cause lost a statesman from her councils. In the strictly private relations of life, of companion, friend and relative, of son, husband and parent, he exhibited those amiable traits which excite no envy, but command respect and win affection. In the trying posi- tion of a member of a military family, where jealousies are so apt to be engendered, he seems early to have gained, and to the last to have retained, the esteem not only of his commander, but of all his brother officers, and this in an especial degree. He preserved amidst the heats of a controversy which destroyed so many ties, the ancient and beauti- ful virtue of filial honor, for though separated from his father by differ- ences of political opinion, he never forgot his reverence for him nor sacri- ficed his affection. His memory is still cherished by a wide circle of relatives and friends, as that of one endowed with the most endearing characteristics of mind and heart; and it is treasured by his descendants as the source of a becoming pride, as the incentive to all that is noble, and a protection from what is base. He was happy and cheerful in
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THE WORTHIES OF TALBOT
his disposition, hearty and constant in his attachments, fond of society but found, at last, his chief pleasures in domestic endearments. Withal, he was possessed of a piety which was as sincere as it was exemplary.
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His life was gentle, and the elements So mixed in him, that nature might stand up And say to all the world, this was a man.
TENCH TILGHMAN'S RIDE
FROM THE PEN OF GENERAL BRADLEY T. JOHNSON, C.S.A.
Matthew Tilghman, the patriarch of the infant commonwealth, with rare wisdom, fortitude and courage, guided the counsel of the State, while Colonel Tench Tilghman illustrated the chivalry which had defied the King's taxgatherers in the person of George Talbot and on every battlefield, from Long Island to Yorktown, proved his devotion to the liberties inherited from a long line of illustrious ancestors. He was military secretary and aid to Washington, and on the surrender of Cornwallis, October 19, 1781, was selected by Washington to carry his official dispatch to the Congress at Philadelphia, announcing that glorious and all-important event.
Taking boat at York river, he lost one night aground on Tangier shoals. On reaching Annapolis he found that a dispatch from the Count de Grasse, dated on the eighteenth, to Governor Thomas Sim Lee, had reached there a day ahead of him and been forwarded to Phila- delphia. Without stopping he pushed on across the bay to Kent, having lost a whole day in a calm between Annapolis and Rock Hall. From there to Philadelphia is about eighty miles as the crow flies. De Grasse's courier had passed through the country a day ahead. The people were on tiptoe to hear the news from York. Their hearts stopped as they imagined they heard the great guns of the English and the French booming over the waters in the still night. All looked with wist- ful eyes to the South for some sign of the issue of the weary struggle.
It was the supreme effort of American liberty. It was the very crisis of freedom. But the flower of Maryland was in that fight, and the lower counties on the Delaware had sent their bravest and best to back their brethren of the Eastern Shore. One of the miracles of history, attested time and again by indisputable evidence, is that when the minds of a whole people are at white heat of excitement and expectation, knowledge comes to them independent of the senses. The Greeks believed that the great god, Pan, spread the knowledge of victory or
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TENCH TILGHMAN'S RIDE
defeat in Athens at the time of their occurrence, hundreds of miles away. The result of the battle of Platea was known the day it was fought, and the news of Thermopylae spread over Greece through the silent cham- bers of the air carried by arrows of light. The victory of Pharsalia was known in Rome at the time it occurred, and the events of Waterloo were discussed on the London Stock Exchange before it adjourned on the eighteenth of June; and I, myself, in June, 1863, heard the attack of Ewell on Milroy and the result detailed in Richmond, one hundred and fifty miles away from Winchester, where the battle took place, on the Sunday afternoon on which it occurred. There were no telegrams or possible means of communication.
So when Tench Tilghman landed at Rock Hall, for his hundred miles' ride through the country, he found the hearts and minds of men and wom- en aglow with a divine frenzy. They felt what had occurred without knowing it, and were wild for confirmation of knowledge. Up through Kent, without drawing rein, this solitary horseman sped his way. When his horse began to fail he turned to his nearest kinsman-for they were mostly of the same blood-and riding up to the lonely farmhouse would shout: "Cornwallis is taken; a fresh horse for the Congress!" and in a minute he would be remounted and pushing on in a free gallop. All the night of the 22nd he rode up the peninsula, not a sound disturbing the silence of the darkness except the beat of his horse's hoofs. Every three or four hours he would ride up to a lonely homestead, still and quiet and dark in the first slumbers of the night, and thunder on the door with his sword: "Cornwallis is taken; a fresh horse for the Congress!" Like an electric shock the house would flash with an instant light and echo with the pattering feet of women, and before a dozen greetings could be exchanged, and but a word given of the fate of the loved ones at York, Tilghman would vanish in the gloom, leaving a trail of glory and of joy behind him. So he sped through Kent, across the head of Sassafras, through Christiana, by Wilmington, straight on to Philadelphia. The tocsin and the slogan of his news spread like fire in dry grass, and left behind him a broad blaze of delirium and joy.
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