Tench Tilghman

Tench Tilghman (December 25 1744-April 18 1786, Baltimore, Maryland) was an American Colonel serving on General Washington's staff during the Revolutionary War, serving in every major campaign of the main Revolutionary army. Tench Tilghman was born on Christmas day, 1744 at "Fausley," the plantation owned by his father, James Tilghman, located on Fausley Creek, a branch of the St. Michaels River, in Talbot County, a few miles from the town of Easton.Tench was born in Calvert County, Maryland, the nephew and son-in-law of Matthew Tilghman. On October 24, 1781, he delivered the formal report of Cornwallis's surrender at Yorktown to the Continental Congress. Tench Tilghman was General George Washington Dearest Aide-de-Camp. Tench was torn Between his role as a Dedicated Patriot and as a Loyal Son and Brother of Tories. His father was James Tilgman. He had many brothers. Tench’s grandfather was Richard Tilghman, a surgeon who was born in the County of Kent, England. In 1662, he moved his family to Talbot County, Maryland, settling in an area along the Third Haven River. Within a short time, Richard moved to the "Hermitage," located on the Chester River, then in Kent County, but today in Queen Anne’s County. Richard’s son, James Tilghman, was a distinguished gentleman lawyer, who lived in Talbot County, but moved to Chestertown in Kent County.

Here are some of his journal entries:From the journal of TT, August 31, 1775 “The town is crowded with Indians and soldiers, it is hard to say which is the most irregular and savage. The former soldiers are mutinous for want of liquor, the latter for want of pay without which they refuse to march. The Troops raised in and about New York are a sad pack. They are mostly old disbanded regulars and old low lived foreigners.

The Yorktown Journal by Tench Tilghman: The Siege of Yorktown- October 17, 1781 “In the morning Lord put out a letter requesting 24 hours must be granted to the commissioners to settle terms of capitulation or the surrender of the posts of York (sic) and Gloster. The General answered that only two hours would be allowed to him to send out his terms in writing. He accordingly sent them out generally as follow, that the Garrisons should be prisoners of war, the German and British soldiers to be sent to England and Germany. The Customary terms of it and presentation of private property, etc. The General answered on the 18th that the terms of sending the troops to England and Germany were inadmissible. That the honors should be the same as those granted at Charlestown—private property preserved, etc. His Lordship closed with all the terms except those of according to the same honors as those granted at Charlestown.

Letter from TT to Matthew Tilghman (father of Anna Maria) in Chester Town, MD, June 10, 1782 “I took the liberty of expressing my opinion to my cousin and had the satisfaction of finding her ideas correspond with mine.”

Letter from GW to TT in Newburgh, NY, on July 9, 1782 “Till your letter of the 28th arrived which is the first from you and the only direct account of you since we departed at Philadelphia, we have various conjectures about you. Some thought you were dead—others that you were married—and all that you have forgot us. Your letter is not a more evident contradiction of the first and last of these suppositions than it is a tacit conformation of the second and as more can wish you greater success in the prosecution of the plan you are upon than I do...you have no friend who wishes more to see you than I do.

Letter from GW to TT in Newburgh, NY, on January 7, 1783 “The obstinacy of the King and his unwillingness to acknowledge the independency of this country, I have ever considered as the greatest obstacles in the way of a peace.”

Letter from GW to TT in Mount Vernon, VA, on June 2, 1785 Summary: George Washington asking Tench Tilghman to write letters, file his papers.

Letter from GW in Mount Vernon, VA to Richard Tilghman(Brother) in Baltimore, MD on May 10, 1786 “...As there were few man for whom I had a warmer friendship or greater regard for your brother Colonel Tilghman—when living; so, with much truth I can assure you that there are whose death I could have more sincerely regretted—And I pray you and his numerous friends to permit me to mingle my sorrows with theirs on this unexpected and melancholy occasion.

Letter from GW to Richard Tilghman (father) June 5, 1786 “...none could have felt his death with more regard than I did, because no one entertained a higher opinion of his worth.”

Letter from TT to William Tilghman in Chester Town, MD “...I am placed in as delicate a situation as it is possible for a man to be. I am, from my station, a master of the most valuable secrets of the cabinet, and the master of the field and it might give cause of umbrage and suspicion at the this critical moment to interest myself in procuring the passage of a brother to England.”

Tench Tilghman was the grandfather of Civil War Brigadier General Lloyd Tilghman.

External links

• Portrait and biography of Tench Tilghman
• [http://www.aboutfamouspeople.com/article1019.html

About Famous People, Tench Tilghman by John T. Marck

• Bibliographic cards

Samuel Alexander Harrison, Memoir of Lieutenant Colonel Tench Tilghman: Secretary and Aid to Washington. Albany, NY 1876 pages 97-98, 106-107, 109, 110-111, 112, 117, 119, 124, and 174

• Monographs

Oswald Tilghman, History of Talbot County, MD 1681-1861 Williams & Wilkins Baltimore, MD 1915 Now in the Talbot County Library, page 2. http://www.talb.lib.md.us/mdroom/worthies/tench.html.

• Shreve, L.G, Tench Tilghman: The Life and Times of Washington’s Aide-de-Camp. Centreville, Maryland: Tidewater Publishers, 1982, Pages 4, 9, 12, 23, 41, 42, 44, 47-48, 51, 60, 62, 64, 66, 67, 115,116, 117,119, 121 193, and 199.