win the vice presidential nomination, which went to William R. King. He intended to be a candidate for vice president in 1856, but supported his brother-in-law Aaron V. Brown, who lost the nomination to John C. Breckinridge. In 1857, Pillow tried unsuccessfully to secure the Democratic nomination for a seat in the United States Senate. Pillow supported the candidacy of Stephen A. Douglas in the presidential election of 1860. With the election of Abraham Lincoln as president, Pillow ultimately supported secession as the will of the majority in Tennessee. In addition to his law practice and management of the family farm, Pillow engaged in highly profitable land speculation. By 1860, he was one of the largest landholders in the South and possibly the wealthiest man in Tennessee. Civil War Early commands Pillow joined the Confederacy just after the start of the Civil War. Tennessee Governor Isham G. Harris appointed Pillow as the senior major general in the Tennessee Militia and commander of the Provisional Army of Tennessee as of May 9, 1861. Pillow worked closely with Harris to develop a regional munitions industry and to create the structure that would become the Army of Tennessee. In July 1861, Pillow was appointed brigadier general in the Confederate States Army and was given command of the unit that was briefly called the "Army of Liberation". Pillow soon came under the command of Major General Leonidas Polk and General Albert Sidney Johnston in the Western Theater. Polk ordered Pillow to lead a force into Kentucky on September 3, 1861, violating Kentucky's declared "neutrality" and provoking the State and the majority of its citizens to adhere to the Union. Battle of Belmont Pillow's first combat was against Union Army Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant, also in his first battle, at Belmont, Missouri, in November. Grant crossed the Mississippi River from Cairo, Illinois on the night of November 6, 1861 to demonstrate against Confederate forces in Missouri to keep them occupied while Major General John C. Fremont tried to maintain control of the western part of the State. Grant decided to attack the small Confederate Camp Johnston at Belmont, Missouri across the river from the Confederate fort at Columbus, Kentucky. 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. Pillow ordered an assault on the Union force through the woods,