Pardon Elisha Tillinghast

Born in 1836, Pardon Elisha Tillinghast served in the American Civil War with the Twelfth Rhode Island Volunteers. He later wrote Reminiscences of Service with the Twelfth Rhode Island Volunteers, and a Memorial of Col. George H. Browne, a firsthand account that helped preserve the regiment’s history and the experience of the war as he saw it.

After the war, he built a distinguished legal career in Rhode Island. Reliable biographical sources identify him as a justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court from 1891 until 1905, and as chief justice from 1904 until his death in 1905.

That mix of eyewitness storytelling and public service gives his writing unusual weight: it comes from someone who not only lived through a defining national conflict, but also spent years in the law and public life. For listeners interested in Civil War history, his work offers both personal memory and a strong sense of character.