The Lloyd Tilghman House is a historic house in downtown

Paducah, Kentucky Paducah ( ) is a List of cities in Kentucky, home rule-class city in the Upland South, and the county seat of McCracken County, Kentucky, United States. The most populous city in the Jackson Purchase region, it is located in the Southeastern Unit ...

, United States. It is also known as the Tilghman-Woolfolk House and the Lloyd Tilghman House and Civil War Museum.

Early years

The

Greek Revival Greek Revival architecture is a architectural style, style that began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe, the United States, and Canada, ...

house was built in 1852 by Robert Woolfolk on behalf of

Lloyd Tilghman Lloyd Tilghman (January 18, 1816 – May 16, 1863) was a Confederate general in the American Civil War. A railroad construction engineer by background, he was selected by the Confederate government to build two forts to defend the Tennessee ...

, who moved with his family to Paducah that year. Tilghman was a

United States Military Academy The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as Officer_(armed_forces)#United_States, comm ...

graduate, having finished 46th out of 49 in his class, but spent less than a year as a Second Lieutenant. He moved to Paducah, then a community of 3,000 people, due to being assigned there by his employer, the

New Orleans and Ohio Railroad The New Orleans and Ohio Railroad was a railway company which existed briefly in the 1850s and 1860s, mainly in Kentucky. History Despite the name, the New Orleans and Ohio Railroad never actually connected to either New Orleans or Ohio, running a ...

, as a railroad

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...

for the first railroad to connect Paducah to major cities to the south. Tilghman did not purchase the house; Woolfolk remained the property owner. Tilghman and his wife, seven children, and five enslaved people called the residence home until 1861, although Tilghman spent much of his time working on a railroad in the Isthmus of

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

. At the time of his departure from the house, he was one of two colonels of the Kentucky State Guard. Tilghman left Paducah in June 1861, delaying his departure to delay officers loyal to the Union from leading the state militia in the pro-secession Paducah. Woolfolk's family then moved into the house. When U.S. soldiers finally arrived in Paducah, their headquarters were directly across from the Woolfolk house. Woolfolk was pro-slavery and flew a

Confederate flag The flags of the Confederate States of America have a history of three successive designs during the American Civil War. The flags were known as the "Stars and Bars", used from 1861 to 1863; the "Stainless Banner", used from 1863 to 1865; and ...

in response, sparking a riot in December 1861 that included U.S. soldiers, particularly those of the 11th Indiana Regiment. The incident would begin U.S. Brigadier General

Charles Ferguson Smith Charles Ferguson Smith (April 24, 1807April 25, 1862) was an American military officer who served in the United States Army during the Mexican–American War and the Utah War. He served as a Union Army major general during the American Civil ...

's decline as he saw his subordinate,

Ulysses S. Grant Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was the 18th president of the United States, serving from 1869 to 1877. In 1865, as Commanding General of the United States Army, commanding general, Grant led the Uni ...

, raised above him almost immediately. Woolfolk was banished from Paducah and the United States to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

on August 1, 1864, by U.S. Brigadier General Eleazer A. Paine. Two weeks later, his wife and family were also banished to Canada; eight of Woolfolk's household, four others from Paducah, and eleven from

Columbus, Kentucky Columbus is a home rule-class city in Hickman County, Kentucky, in the United States. The population was 140 at the 2020 census, a decline from 229 in 2000. The city lies at the western end of the state, less than a mile from the Mississippi ...

, joined Woolfolk into exile.Jacobsen p.8.11

Post-war

After the war, the house was a residence until 1906, when it saw various commercial uses. It was slated for demolition in August 1986, but Growth, Inc. saved the building after work. In 1987 the roof was stabilized, and in 1992 it came under the care of the Tilghman Heritage Foundation. $150,000 was spent to save the building from 1986 to 1998. It is now used as a Civil War Museum focusing on the western theater of the war. Upon its grand reopening on March 25, 2006, the museum focused on Western Kentucky's role in the war. On December 1, 2008, the

Sons of Confederate Veterans The Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) is an American neo-Confederate nonprofit organization of male descendants of Confederate soldiers that commemorates these ancestors, funds and dedicates monuments to them, and promotes the pseudohisto ...

purchased the home from the foundation, with each group paying half of the remaining $150,000 mortgage. The museum will keep its previous operation hours from 12:00 to 16:00, Wednesday through Saturday, from March to November.Bradley, C. D
Groups save Tilghman House
''

Courier-Journal The ''Courier Journal'', also known as the ''Louisville Courier Journal'' (and informally ''The C-J'' or ''The Courier''), and called ''The Courier-Journal'' between November 8, 1868, and October 29, 2017, is a daily newspaper published in ...

'', December 14, 2008

Gallery

Image:Tilghman House sidewalk.JPG, Sidewalk outside the House

References

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External links

Visiting information
- City of Paducah {{DEFAULTSORT:Tilghman, Lloyd, House 1852 establishments in Kentucky American Civil War museums in Kentucky Buildings and structures in Paducah, Kentucky Historic house museums in Kentucky Houses completed in 1852 Houses in McCracken County, Kentucky Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Kentucky Museums in McCracken County, Kentucky National Register of Historic Places in McCracken County, Kentucky Tilghman family Greek Revival architecture in Kentucky Sons of Confederate Veterans