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ILLESPIE, GEORGE LEWIS, soldier, engineer, brigadier-general and chief of engineers of the United States army, is a native of Tennessee, born at Kingston, Roane county, on October 7, 1841. His parents were George LeTds and Margaret Alice Gillespie. On July 1, 1858, he was appointed to the military academy, at West Point, from which he was graduated June 17, 1862, and appointed to the army, ith the rank of second lieutenant of engineers. His service began with active duties in the field during the war and his participation in that struggle lasted until its close. From 1862 to 1864, he was assistant engineer with the Army of the Potomac, and from 1864 until Lee's surrender at Appomattox, he was chief engineer of the Army of the Shenandoah.

This period of service included the operations and engineering work necessitated by the Maryland campaign, Antietam, the Rappahannock campaign, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, the Pennsylvania campaign, the Rapidan campaign, Richmond campaign. Cold Harbor and the defensive works about and at the siege of Petersburg. On October 30, 1864, he was made assistant engineer on the staff of General P. H. Sheridan, and chief engineer in the following year. As such he participated in the engagement at Waynesborough, in the action at Ashland, the battle of Dinwiddle's Court House, battle of Five Forks, action of Appomattox station, and the capitulation at Appomattox Court House, April 9, 1865. On the latter date, he was brevetted lieutenant-colonel for gallant and meritorious services in the campaign from Winchester to Appomattox, and received the Medal of Congress for bravery.

From Appomattox, Colonel Gillespie accompanied General Sheridan to New Orleans as chief engineer of the military division of the Southwest and took part in the reconstruction of the Gulf States, and in the restoration of the Republic of Mexico. He returned North in 1867, under orders, and was engaged in the construction of fortifications and in various harbor improvements at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and at Boston, Massachusetts, until August