Alvan Cullen Gillem July 29, 1830 - December 2, 1875

Gillem was Southern-born and stayed loyal to the Union. In Nashville he served as provost marshal and became a close friend of military governor Andrew Johnson, who gave him command of the Governor's Guard, a personal army of infantry, artillery and cavalry. After the war he commanded occupation troops in Mississippi and Arkansas until he was reassigned in favor of a friend of Grant. In 1873 he led troops in the Modoc War in northern California, where some of his men were surprised and beaten at the Lava Beds on April 26.

What the plaque says

Alvan Cullen Gillem July 29, 1830 - December 2, 1875 Born nearby; graduated from the US Military Academy in 1851, his Civil War duties included those of Provost Marshall of Nashville, later Adjt. General of Tennessee, to which he was appointed by Andrew Johnson. Promoted to Maj. Gen.; commanded the expedition which killed John H. Morgan. His last active service was in Modor War, 1873.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Cummins Falls State Park — 8.8 mi
  A 75-foot waterfall and swimming hole on the Blackburn Fork, saved from a housing development in 2011 and opened as Tennessee's 54th state park.
• Cookeville Depot Museum — 16 mi
  The 1909 Tennessee Central Railroad depot in Cookeville's west side, now a museum with a model of the town in 1955 and a steam engine in the yard.
• Standing Stone State Park — 16 mi
  A New Deal park on Mill Creek named for a vanished stone that Native peoples revered and railroad builders blasted, with a lake, 1930s cabins and a marbles championship.
• Red Boiling Springs — 16 mi
  A Macon County spa town built around red sulphur springs, with five kinds of mineral water, red-painted pumps and the surviving hotels of a resort that once held more than a dozen.

More markers nearby

• Orion Clemenes 1825-1897 — steps away
• Michaux's Discovery 1796 — steps away
• The Austin Peay Bridge — 1.2 mi
• Judge John Jordan Gore — 3.2 mi