BRONX WEEKLY F www.BXTimes.com ebruary 24, 2019 16
Off Broadway play, ‘Checklist’ coming to Lehman
Nick DiBrino was
walking through Woodlawn
Cemetery one day
when he chanced upon
the grave of General
Lloyd Tilghman in the
eastern area of the Observatory
Plot. What I found
most interesting about
his burial there is that he
was a Confederate General
killed in action at the
Battle of Champion’s Hill
in Mississippi during the
Vicksburg Campaign of
1863. He was hit by a cannonball
on May 16th of
that year and died within
hours. I was curious as
to the circumstances that
led to his being interred
in the Bronx.
Tilghman was born
into a military family
near Claiborne, Maryland
on January 26, 1816.
It was a family with a
proud heritage as his
grandfather served as a
senator in the Continental
Congress and also
served as a lieutenant
colonel in the Continental
Army where among
other duties he served as
an aide-de-camp to General
George Washington.
It was no surprise, therefore,
when Lloyd was
admitted to West Point
from which he graduated
on October 1, 1836 with a
commission as a second
lieutenant and an engineering
degree.
He found work as a construction
engineer on the
railroads before enlisting
in the volunteer artillery
as a captain in his home
state of Maryland. Later
he would settle down in
Paducah, Kentucky with
his wife, Augusta, and his
children, where he worked
as an engineer for the Mobile
and Ohio Railroad.
While there he joined the
3rd Kentucky Infantry
with the rank of major
and was soon promoted to
colonel. When the Civil
War erupted in 1861, his
Kentucky State Guard
unit joined the Confederate
cause even though the
state maintained neutrality.
Tilghman was promoted
to brigadier general
in the Confederate Army
the following October.
When the war was
over, the general’s wife,
Augusta, moved to Tennessee
for a while before
returning home to New
York.
Therein was found the
answer to the mystery of
why a Confederate general
managed to be buried
in a Bronx graveyard. His
wife was originally from
New York and simply had
his body exhumed from
his Mississippi grave and
transported closer to her
home. There is, however,
a monument to him in
Vicksburg as well as one
in Paducah, Kentucky.
Augusta Murray Tilghman
passed away at the
age of 79 and joined her
husband beneath the sod
of Woodlawn Cemetery on
February 1, 1898 here in
the dear and glorious borough
of the Bronx.
As a postscript, some
may find it interesting
that a grand-nephew,
Lloyd W. Tilghman, later
settled nearby in Marble
Hill at 130 West 228th
Street. He was an organizer
for the Catholic Extension
Society.
BRONX SCENE
The new, entertaining,
and sold-out off-Broadway
play Checklist is all the
rage among young ethnic
millennial couples, families,
and friends. Checklist
stars social media
comedian/actor Mr. Commodore,
siblings Khalid
and Tyler Burgos and Katherine
Nunez. Written and
directed by Waled ‘Wali
World’ Burgos, this production
showcases a Bronx
family’s impressive skill
for storytelling; also, it provides
a platform for emerging
local talent. The relatable
narrative explores an
array of different relationships
within friends, family,
and love.
Every woman’s dream is
to settle down and get married
to ‘Mr. Right’ and that’s
just what star of the show
Jessica is being pressured
to do by her loved ones. But
Jessica has a pretty lengthy
‘checklist,’ and she wants
all her boxes checked off.
That is until she meets costar
Dexter.
Since its big curtain debut
in February of 2016, the
show has had seven consecutive
organically sold-out
shows. Each show has been
attended by top industry
executives and leaves the
crowd amazed by the astonishing
talent of the actors
and relatable storyline.
The excitement around
the production has garnered
the attention of notable
media outlets such as:
Power 105’s Breakfast Club,
Ebro in the Morning on Hot
97, Pix 11 News and WBLS’s
The Quiet Storm. It has
even been awarded the Off-
Broadway Play of 2017 by
DSN Radio.
Checklist promotes multicultural
diversity while
also featuring an amazing
array of up and coming acting
talent in NYC. They have
successfully brought Broadway
to the Bronx/ The
show always sells out and
this year they’re returning
to the stage on Saturday,
February 23, at the Lehman
College Lovinger Theatre.
Purchase tickets using this
link: https://checklisttheplay.
ticketspice.com/ChecklistThePlay
or call (646)
244-8417.
The cast of off-Broadway play Checklist.
Confederate interred in Woodlawn Cemetery
Celebrated author and historian Nick DiBrino poses in front of the
memorial to Confederate General Lloyd Tilghman in the Observatory
Plot at Woodlawn Cemetery here in the Bronx on April 13, 2010.
Photo by Bill Twomey
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