resumed a successful legal career. He died near Helena, Arkansas in 1878; initially buried in Helena, Pillow was later reinterred at Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis. Early life Pillow was born on June 8, 1806 in Williamson County, Tennessee, to Gideon Pillow and Ann Payne Pillow. He came from a well connected, property owning family with a reputation for Indian fighting and loyalty to Andrew Jackson. He graduated from the University of Nashville in 1827 and practiced law in Columbia, Tennessee, where he became friends with future President James K. Polk. Pillow married Mary Elizabeth Martin, March 24, 1831. In 1831, Tennessee Governor William Carroll appointed Pillow as district attorney general. Pillow served as a brigadier general in the Tennessee Militia from 1833 to 1836. Pillow played "an important role" in the 1844 Democratic Party convention which nominated Polk for president, although Pillow exaggerated his contribution to the exclusion of other prominent Polk supporters. Mexican–American War During the Mexican–American War, Pillow was appointed brigadier general of United States Volunteers by President Polk as a brigadier general July 1, 1846. He was promoted to major general of volunteers on April 13, 1847. He was wounded in the right arm at the Battle of Cerro Gordo and in the left leg at Chapultepec. During the war he came into conflict with one of the principal commanders of the American forces in Mexico, Major General Winfield Scott. The quarrel began when Scott asked Pillow to revise his exaggerated battle reports in which Pillow took credit for the American victories at the Battles of Contreras and Churubusco, but Pillow refused. Although Pillow had performed reasonably well despite some mistakes in troop dispositions, the battles were still won by troops under the overall command of Scott. Then, an anonymous letter—actually written by Pillow—published in the New Orleans Delta on September 10, 1847, and signed "Leonidas", wrongfully credited Pillow with the victories at Contreras, including the plan of battle and command of all the forces engaged, and Churubusco. 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. Worth. Pillow wrote to President Polk about Scott's involvement in a bribery scheme proposed by Mexican leader Antonio López de Santa Anna for his help in ending the war without further bloodshed. Polk relieved Scott of command by a letter