CONFEDERATE BIOGRAPHY:  Thomas P. Ochiltree - Harrison County, TX

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Copyright.  All rights reserved.
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Submitted by Mary Love Berryman - marylove@tyler.net
6 June 2002 
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TEXANS WHO WORE THE GRAY by Sid S. Johnson, pages 224-225 

THOMAS P. OCHILTREE.

Thomas P. Ochiltree, one of the most widely known Tex­ans, was born in 
Nacogdoches, in the Republic of Texas, Oc­tober 26, 1839, and was 
reared in his native town and in Mar­shall, where he secured a good 
classical education. His fath­er, Gen. William B. Ochiltree, was in 
1844 made Secretary of the Treasury of the Texas republic and later 
became its At­torney-General, and was colonel of the 18th Texas regiment 
in the Confederate army.  The subject of this sketch was a lieutenant 
in the Texas Rangers and saw much service in rid­ding the state of the 
lawless marauders that overran the commonwealth in 1856 and 1857.  He 
was the assistant chief clerk of the House of Representatives of the 
Sixth Legislat­ure at the adjourned session in 1856 and filled the 
same posi­tion in the next legislature.  He was secretary of the 
Demo­cratic Convention for the Eastern Congressional District of Texas 
that met at Tyler May 13, 1857, and Assistant Ser­geant-at-Arms of the 
State Demcratic Convention that met at Waco, May 14, 1857 (the first 
held in Texas). He was sec­retary of the State Democratic Convention 
that met in Gal­veston in April in 1860.  Having had his disabilities 
as a mi­nor removed he was admitted to the bar by a special act of the 
legislature at the winter session of 1857-58, and there­after practiced 
both at Marshall and Jefferson with his fath­er, and for a time at the 
latter place in the office of his broth­er-in-law, Gen. James H. Rogers.  
He edited in 1860, the Jeffersonian, a newspaper published at 
Jefferson.  He par­ticipated as a delegate in the National Democratic 
Conven­tion that met at Charleston, April 23,1860, and at the ses­sion 
of that division of the delegates who later (after the split) met at 
Baltimore, June 23,1860, and nominated Breck­enridge and Lane.  He 
volunteered as a private in Bass' company, Fifth Texas Regiment, 
Hood's brigade, army of Northern Virginia, early in the war between 
the States, and was promoted, in the order named, to the position of 
lieuten­ant, captain, and major of the adjutant-general's depart­ment.  
At the battle of Val Verde he was assigned to lead a desperate charge 
that resulted in victory for the Confeder­ates.  He receivcd his major's 
commission for gallant action in the field, was appointed as a 
confidential messenger to Richmond, and later was successively aid-de-
camp to Gen.  Tom Green, Gen. Dick Taylor, and Gen. Longstreet.  So 
well did he acquit himself that he gained a colonel's brevet, and was 
made the confidential messenger of Jefferson Davis to the Confederate 
commanders west of the Mississippi. Col. Ochiltree was made a prisoner 
at the battle of Five forks. After being released from the Federal 
military prison on Johnson's Island, on Lake Erie, at the close of the 
war he went to Europe, where he spent a few months, and then re­turning 
to America he wrote for the New York News along with Roger A. Pryor, 
Thos. A. Sneed, and S. S. Cox.  He returned to Texas the latter part 
of 1865, practiced law for a while in Galveston, was later 
correspondent and then part proprietor of the Houston Daily Telegraph, 
and then visited Europe where he attracted the attention of capitalists 
to the advantages of Texas with good results. He was later United 
States marshal for the Eastern District of Texas,and in 1882 was 
elected to the National House of Representatives from the Galveston 
district and as such made a creditable record in Washington. Upon his 
retirement from Congress he made his home in New York where he was 
identified with John W. Mackey and his various enterprises.  Col. 
Ochiltree the last twenty years of his life traveled extensively in 
Europe. His wit and his fund of stories made him popular, and as an 
after dinner speaker he acquired a national reputation.  He had many 
friends among the nobility and the titled people in Europe and was 
frequently entertained by the American ambassadors at London, Rome, 
Paris and Berlin. His friend­ship was prized too by some of England's 
most eminent statesmen and men of letters.  He was well known to 
turfmen and was a keen follower of the races.  He was devoted to Texas 
and always registered from this State and he will ever be kindly 
remembered here for the days of auld lang syne and for the gallant 
service he rendered while he wore the Confederate grey.  Col. 
Ochiltree died from heart dis­ease at Hot Springs, Virginia, 
Nov. 25, 1902.