behind AotW

In the background above is the sleeve of Captain Hugh R. Garden‘s uniform coat, offered at auction by Poulin Antiques and Auctions. That’s some stunning braid against the red artillery cuffs. His photograph, of unknown provenance, is from his Findagrave memorial.

Garden served as a Private soldier beginning in April 1861 and was a Corporal by February 1862. He then organized the Palmetto Artillery – “the guns being cast under his supervision from church bells at Columbia” – and he commanded the battery as their Captain through the war, including in Maryland in September 1862.

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Update May 2024

Here’s a very fine hand-colored photograph of Captain Garden, a piece LiveAuctions sold for $7,500 in September 2017. I’ve only just now found it.

And to update his details, he was Color Bearer and Sergeant of Company D of the 2nd Infantry 1861-62, not Private or Corporal, at least according to his Compiled Service Records. I previously trusted someone else’s research, in error.