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According to Ezra Warner's Generals In Gray:
Chilton-Original promotion was to rank from Oct. 20, 1862, but not confirmed by Senate until Feb. 16, 1864.
Clanton-promotion to brigadier general to rank from Nov. 16, 1863

Interesting. So why would Polk have been referring to him as a general in mid-1863? Unless maybe he had been commissioned one, but not formally approved (just as D.H. Hill was promoted to lieutenant general but the approval by the senate would have come later).

Would you change what I have, then?

Thanks for the Chilton info. I've changed the bio accordingly:

Brig. Gen. Robert Hall Chilton (b. 1815, d. 1879). A native of Loudoun County, Virginia, Chilton graduated 48th in West Point’s Class of 1837, and initially served in Kansas, Texas, and the Indian Territory. During the Mexican War, he was brevetted Major for heroism after he carried a wounded Jefferson Davis from the battlefield at the Battle of Buena Vista. Chilton served as a paymaster from 1854 until the outbreak of the Civil War. A close friend of Gen. Robert E. Lee, he served as chief of staff of Lee's army until after the Battle of Gettysburg. Chilton was the undisputed author of the famous "Lost Order" which delivered Lee's plans into Union Gen. George B. McClellan’s hands prior to the Battle of Antietam. His responsibility for the copy of the order going astray is uncertain: one theory holds that he deliberately betrayed the South and Lee, and turned the copy of the order over to Union, but an alternate theory holds that Chilton was utterly incompetent. The latter seems the more likely explanation, considering that Chilton was a West Point graduate who saved Davis's life in the Mexican War and was also a friend of Robert E. Lee, and yet only received his official promotion to brigadier general in on February 16, 1864 (to rank to October 20, 1862). Chilton commanded in combat just once: on May 10, 1864 he led a mixed force of infantry and cavalry successfully against a Union column on the Richmond & Petersburg Railroad. He then completed the war as inspector general based in Richmond until the war’s end, after which he served as president of a manufacturing company in Columbus, Georgia. Chilton died of apoplexy in Columbus on February 18, 1879, and was buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond. (Bio by Michael Jennings)