The captured Rebel officers, in a profusion of gold lace, were taken to Grant's head-quarters. Tilghman was good-looking, broad-shouldered, with the pompous manner of the South. Commodore Foote asked him:
"How could you fight against the old flag?"
"It was hard," he replied, "but I had to go with my people."
Presently a Chicago reporter inquired of him:
"How do you spell your name, General?"
"Sir," replied Tilghman, with indescribable pomposity, "if General Grant wishes to use my name in his official dispatches, I have no objection; but, sir, I do not wish to appear at all in this matter in any newspaper report."
"I merely asked it," persisted the journalist, "for the list of prisoners captured."
Tilghman, whose name should have been Turveydrop, replied, with a lofty air and a majestic wave of the hand:
"You will oblige me, sir, by not giving my name in any newspaper connection whatever!"