However, controversy arose when, in a series of letters, Pillow tried to take what was perceived by some as undue credit for American victories at the expense of his commander, Major General Winfield Scott.

At the start of the Civil War in 1861, Pillow supported secession, and was commissioned a brigadier general in the Confederate Army in July.

Floyd and Pillow managed to personally escape with a few aides before Buckner surrendered the remaining garrison to the Union Army of Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant.

[3] In 1831, Tennessee Governor William Carroll, a cousin who had been one of Jackson's lieutenants,[5] appointed Pillow as district attorney general.

He bought the Clifton Place plantation near Columbia, which he eventually developed into one of the largest estates in the state, increasing his political influence.

Assigned to Robert Patterson's encampment in Lomita, where he commanded the Second Brigade of the Second Division of Tennessee volunteers, one of his first orders canceled daytime guard duty, a popular move with the troops but a potential major security lapse.

Pillow made another widely noted misstep one night early in the battle when he ordered half of a company of Pennsylvania volunteers to stand guard on one side of a road while the others slept across from them, a formation that would likely have resulted in heavy casualties had the unit been attacked, leading even privates to hold his generalship in low esteem.

[9] At the Battle of Cerro Gordo, Pillow disregarded orders and chose a more direct route up one of the ridges where the Mexicans under Antonio López de Santa Anna were positioned.

[10] Pillow was promoted to major general shortly afterwards,[1][7] primarily because he was to return to Mexico, and Polk wanted him to continue monitoring Scott's actions.

Pillow also resisted his assignment to attack Chapultepec from the west, believing it would expose his troops to higher casualties while letting other commanders take the credit, an objection that held little sway with Scott.

[14][15][a] When Pillow's intrigue was exposed, he was arrested by Scott and held for court-martial for insubordination and violating regulations, along with Colonel James Duncan and Brigadier General William J.

[16] Pillow wrote to President Polk about Scott's involvement in a bribery scheme proposed by Mexican leader Santa Anna for his help in ending the war without further bloodshed.

[28] In his memoirs, Scott wrote that Pillow was "amiable 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 an end by the one as the other, and habitually boastful of acts of cleverness at the total sacrifice of moral character.

"[29] Pillow was a Tennessee delegate to the 1850 Nashville Convention, which met to consider possible courses of action if the federal government decided to ban slavery in territories acquired and organized as part of Westward Expansion and the Mexican–American War.

[28] He declined to run to succeed Carroll as governor of Tennessee since his time in Mexico had left his business affairs in such disarray that he did not believe himself capable of giving the job his full attention.

[30] The following year, Pillow tried unsuccessfully to secure the Democratic nomination for a seat in the United States Senate from Tennessee.

[30] With the election of Abraham Lincoln as president, Pillow ultimately came to support secession as the will of the majority in Tennessee,[6][28] although he remained personally opposed.

In addition to his law practice and management of the family farm, Pillow engaged in highly profitable land speculation.

[35] Pillow's first combat of the war was against Union Army Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant, also in his first battle, at Belmont, Missouri, in November.

[1] Grant crossed the Mississippi River from Cairo, Illinois, on the night of November 6, 1861, to keep Confederate forces occupied in Missouri while Major General John C. Fremont tried to maintain control of the western part of the state.

[36] Pillow, who had left the area with 5,000 men for Clarksville, Tennessee, a few hours earlier, was recalled by Polk to confront the attackers.

[38] The disorganized Union soldiers fled for their gunboats, leaving the 27th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment behind, only to be rescued by boats sent back for that purpose.

Both sides claimed the battle, seen today as inconclusive, as a victory: the Confederates because the Union force withdrew across the river under fire; Grant because he had achieved both his objectives.

[39] Nevertheless, Pillow and his command were voted the Thanks of the Confederate Congress on December 6, 1861:... for the desperate courage they exhibited in sustaining for several hours, and under most disadvantageous circumstances, an attack by a force of the enemy greatly superior to their own, both in numbers and appointments; and for the skill and gallantry by which they converted what at first threatened so much disaster, into a triumphant victory.

[40] Without permission, Pillow began to forward men and supplies to Fort Donelson, a crucial installation protecting the Cumberland River.

One, John B. Floyd, former governor of Virginia and Secretary of War under James Buchanan, outranked Pillow, who found himself displaced as commander and put in the unofficial position of second-in-command.

[42] Pillow led this wing in a surprise assault with the intention of opening an escape route to relieve the besieged Confederate forces in the fort.

As he wrote in his memoirs, I had known General Pillow in Mexico, and judged that with any force, no matter how small, I could march up to within gunshot of any intrenchments he was given to hold.

[54][55][56] After the battle, Pillow was one of the few Confederate officers to speak in favor of General Bragg's battlefield decisions, denigrating Breckinridge's execution of the ill-fated assault.

[7] After the American Civil War, Pillow was forced into bankruptcy, but embarked on a successful law practice in Memphis, Tennessee, as partner with former Governor Isham G.