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.