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| Colonel Asbury Coward (1835 - 1925). |
Asbury Coward was born on Saturday, September 19, 1835 on the Quenby Plantation in Berkeley County, South Carolina to Mr. Jesse Coward (1805-1850) and Mrs. Keziah Ann Dubois Coward (1807-1835). The couple were lowcountry rice planters who lived in Charleston County.
At age 19 Coward graduated from The Citadel Military College in Charleston, South Carolina in 1854. At the Citadel he was classmates with future Confederate Brigadier General Micah Jenkins (1835-1864).
He moved to Yorkville, South Carolina (modern-day York) in 1854 to study law under the direction
of Mr. William Blackburn Wilson, one of the leading lawyers of his day. After only a couple of months, however, young Coward -- who reportedly liked to sign his name "A. Coward" -- decided against the law as his line of work. He much preferred outdoor activities and military life to working in some law office.
Coward persuaded his old classmate, Micah Jenkins, to come to Yorkville and together the two young men founded the Kings Mountain Military Academy in January of 1855.
Named for the nearby site of a major battle of the American Revolutionary War in 1780, the Kings Mountain Military Academy was a sort of prep school for the Citadel in the upcountry. The school's first class
had 12 male students ranging from ages 11 to 16.
The school would quickly gain an outstanding reputation for its academics, as well as its strict discipline. The five-year
curriculum included classes in mathematics, chemistry, astronomy, geology, physiology, history, grammar, English literature,
foreign languages (French and German), Latin, and philosophy.
The Kings Mountain Military Academy thrived in those first years and by 1860, the academy had 10 instructors and nearly 200 student cadets.
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| Boasting a large campus building and dorms, the Kings Mountain Military Academy in York, South Carolina had nearly 200 students and 11 instructors at its height, including Asbury Coward and Micah Jenkins. The school operated from 1855 till 1861 when the American Civil War began. The academy would reopen following the war, but never again achieved its initial success. Photo courtesy of the SC Department of Archives & History. |
When South Carolina seceded from the Union on Thursday, December 20, 1860, and the War Between The States broke out on Friday, April 12, 1861, both Coward and Jenkins immediately enlisted in the South Carolina military forces, and the school closed its doors for the duration of the war.
Asbury Coward entered the Confederate Army as captain in the adjutant general's department under Brigadier General David R. Jones. Later he was transferred to the field along with General Jones, who now commanded a brigade in the division of Major General John B. Magruder in the Peninsula Campaign where he was given a promotion to major following the Battle of Malvern Hill on Tuesday, July 1, 1862.
The following is an excerpt from Reminiscences of a Private by Frank M. Mixson, Company E, 1st South Carolina Volunteers (also assigned to Jenkins' Brigade) recalling when Coward first took command of the 5th South Carolina in late 1862:
It was here that Col. Coward took command of the Fifth South Carolina. I recollect how game he looked. He had the regiment formed for dress parade. He was dressed in a brand new suit, polished high top boots, shining spurs and bright sword. He did not weigh over one hundred and twenty pounds, but he looked game. He had the orders read appointing him colonel, and then he told the men that he was now their colonel and would be respected as such; he would not tell them to go only as he led them. When he got through his talk the Fifth knew they had a colonel, and after-events proved it, for from then on the Fifth was one of the best regiments in our brigade.
As a military academy teacher, Colonel Coward was said to have been a very strict, but excellent field officer.
The 5th South Carolina Infantry saw action with General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia at the Second Battle of Bull Run (August 29-30th), and during Lee's first invasion of the North at Turner's Gap at the Battle of South Mountain (Sunday, September 14th) and the Battle of Sharpsburg, Maryland (Friday, September 19th).
Jenkins' brigade now served in the division of Major General George Pickett and was present at the Battle of Fredericksburg (December 11-15th) although it was not engaged.
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| Brigadier General Micah Jenkins CSA (1835 - 1864) was Coward's best friend and commanding officer both before and during the War Between the States. |
Coward's 5th South Carolina Infantry Regiment and Jenkins brigade went with Major General John Bell Hood's Division to Georgia in the autumn of 1863 and participated in the second day's fighting at the Battle of Chickamauga on Sunday, September 20th with the Confederate Army of Tennessee under General Braxton Bragg.
Later that same year, the 5th South Carolina fought with Bragg's army during the disastrous Chattanooga Campaign at the Battle of Wauhatchie (October 28-29th) and the Knoxville Campaign.
On Saturday, January 16, 1864, General Micah Jenkins led his brigade to victory in the small Battle of Kimbrough's Crossroads (Dandridge) against Federal cavalry, which Colonel Coward's regiment took part in. Not long after Longstreet's Corps would return to Virginia and Lee's Army in time for the new spring campaign.
That same afternoon Coward led his regiment in an attack through the now burning wilderness and, when the colors of the 5th South Carolina Regiment fell, Coward himself picked them up and led the charge over the Union earthworks along the Brock Road in the thick of the battle where he was wounded for the first time in the war. He would be back in command a week later, but was wounded again at the Battle of Chaffin's Farm on Friday, September 30, 1864.
The regiment's final engagement was at the Battle of Cumberland Church (Farmville, Virginia) on Friday, April 7, 1865.
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| Colonel Asbury Coward during his service as Superintendent of The Citadel (1890-1908). |
Following the surrender and end of the war, Asbury Coward returned to Yorkville to his wife and family. He would go on to have a very productive life beyond his service to the Confederate army.
Colonel Coward reopened the Kings Mountain Military Academy in 1866, but things were not the same as they were before. His friend, and former commanding officer, General Micah Jenkins, was dead. In the decades following the end of the war, not many families could afford to send their kids to boarding school. South Carolina was also under Federal military occupation until 1876 and the end of the Reconstruction Era and the school's cadets were not allowed the use of military rifles for their drills.
In spite of this, Coward kept the school going and maintained its usefulness and prestige, despite the extreme poverty in the State.
Colonel Coward also served as the chairman of the Kings Mountain Centennial Committee in 1880 and helped commemorate the Centennial Monument at the site of the Revolutionary War battlefield in Blacksburg, South Carolina.
His dedication to education would be well rewarded.
From 1884-1886, Colonel Coward would hold the office of South Carolina Superintendent of Education, and in 1890 would become Superintendent of The Citadel in Charleston and served at that post until 1908 when he was awarded a Carnegie Pension for his service to mankind. The Citadel made great strides under the leadership of Coward who gained the respect and affection of every student body he ever commanded.
The University of South Carolina in Columbia awarded him the honorary degree of doctor of laws in 1896 and U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Coward to the prestigious West Point Board of Visitors in the early 1900s.
After briefly living in Johnson County, Tennessee with one of their adult children, both Colonel Coward and his wife (now 89 and 87 respectively) returned to York to live out the remainder of their lives.
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| Colonel Asbury Coward and his wife, Elise Corbett Blum Coward, taken in 1923, nearly 67 years after the couple were married on Christmas Day in 1856. |
Colonel
Asbury Coward died on Tuesday, April 28, 1925 at the age of 89. He is buried in
historic Rose Hill Cemetery in York, South Carolina next to his wife,
Eliza, underneath a beautiful granite monument.
On Wednesday, October 7, 1931, the Kings Mountain Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution erected a small monument honoring Colonel Coward near the Centennial Monument at Kings Mountain National Military Park in recognition for his work in helping to preserve the battlefield site for future generations.
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| Colonel Coward's marker near the Centennial Monument at the Kings Mountain National Military Park in Blacksburg, South Carolina. |
The Kings Mountain Military Academy would close down permanently in 1908. A year later the property
the academy stood on was sold to the York Episcopal Church. Today
the York Place Episcopal Church Home For Children sits on the site of
the former military school. A historical marker notes
both the site of the academy and its first commandant, Brigadier General Micah Jenkins, who is buried in Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston.
The marker is located on Kings Mountain Road (SC Highway 321) in York, South Carolina.
One of Asbury and Elise Coward's sons, Dr. Francis Asbury Coward (1877-1922) would serve in the American Expeditionary Forces A.E.F. as a 1st Lieutenant and doctor in the Medical Corps on the Western Front in France in 1918 -- the last year of the First World War. He's buried in the family plot near his parents at Rose Hill Cemetery in York, South Carolina.
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| The grave of Colonel Asbury Coward and his wife Elise at Rose Hill Cemetery in York, South Carolina. |
This blogger would like to thank the good folks at the South Carolina State Department of Archives and Winthrop College in Rock Hill, South Carolina for providing the information for this article.
2 comments:
Report of Col. M. Jenkins, Fifth South Carolina Infantry.
HDQRS. FIFTH REG'T SOUTH CAROLINA VOLS.,
McLean's Ford, July 22, 1861.
SIR: I beg leave to make the following brief report of the occurrences of
yesterday as they relate to my regiment:
When I had thrown my regiment in the position indicated by your orders,
and found that the enemy had discovered our approach, I formed
front under the brow of a hill. The enemy opening upon us a heavy fire of
grape and shell. I advance quickly over very difficult ground. While
gallantry charging in fine order our friends in the rear poured in upon me
heavy fires of musketry, cutting us up sadly. This compelled a halt, which
I made upon gaining the brow of the hill upon which the enemy was
stationed. Here, under a terrific fire of shell I reformed and dressed my
lines, and reloaded such guns as had been fired. Expecting the reserve to
form to the rear to my support, I made every preparation to renew my
charge upon the batteries, when I discovered that I was isolated in the
presence of the enemy's guns, cavalry, and tree of four regiments of
infantry.
Doubtful whether to advance unsupported against such great odds of position
and men, I sent to you three times for orders, and retained my position amid
the bursting of shell threats of attack for threequarters of an four. Throwing
to the front Capt. Seabrook's company as sharpshooters, and finding a
large force threatening to charge, I withdrew them and placed Company A
(captain Goss) and Company B (Capt. Jackson) in advance, in a skirt of
woods upon my right, with orders to open the enemy, which was promptly
executed and with effect, the artillerist leaving their guns and the troops
retiring to the wood immediately in their rear.
Not hearing from the brigade, and the enemy being impregnable to a small
body like mine, I decided unwillingly to withdraw, and leaving Companies
A and B to prevent a sudden attack, retired in order a short distance, when
I threw into position Company C (Capt. Seay) and Company H (Capt.
Bower), and called in the two Companies A and B, and, forming column,
slowly and in order left the ground.
My observation, limited to a portion of the regiment, at times prevented my
noticing all who behaved well. I notice with pleasure, as coming under
immediate observation the coolness and good conduct of Lieut. Col. G. W.
H. Legg, in addition to the captains mentioned as performing special orders.
I was greatly placed with the coolness and conduct o f others. Capt. Giles,
Carpenter, and, in fine, all under my observation, obeyed with promptness
and kept good order in their ranks. Many lieutenants placed me by
self-possession and coolness, and wound no doubt have given signal proof
of gallantry and conduct had opportunity offered. My adjutant, Lieut. E. B.
Clinton, also greatly placed me by his conduct. I could notice a general
desire to do their duty, and specially marked as encouraging the men were
Privates Fernandez and Long, of Capt. Glenn's company. I also hear
Private Scaife, of Capt. Goss' company, highly spoken of as aiding his
company in its hour of trial.
I can only refer to the providence of a merciful God success, as the enemy
left the under so small and attacking; to His protection, our safety and
comparatively shall loss under so heavy a fire.
The enemy fired seventy-four shots at us, and my killed amounted only to
there and my wounded to twenty-three.
Most respectfully,
M. JENKINS,
Col.
Gen. D. R. JONES,
Brig.-Gen., Commanding Third Brigade.
P. S.--I should have that Company K, Capt. Walker, was deployed on my
right flank as skirmishers, and the road being unknown and the thicket dense
was separated from the regiment. Some few of
its members, having become separated from the company, with Sergeant
Blassingame, joined us.
Source: Official Records
CHAP. IX.] THE BULL RUN CAMPAIGN. PAGE 541-2
[Series I. Vol. 2. Serial No. 2.]
Courtesy "In Camp and Battle with the Washington Artillery of New Orleans"
During the day (21st) Gen. D. R. Jones moved his command across Bull Run at McLean's ford - in conformity to the original orders of Gen. Beauregard, - and advanced along the road towards Centreville, but soon encountered a heavy force of infantry and artillery strongly posted behind an abatis of felled trees. He was met by a furious fire of infantry and artillery at short range, and withdrew his troops to his former position. While doing so, one of Capt. Miller's 6-pounders got fast against a tree, and there was some little delay in moving it on.
An irate staff-officer rode up, and began finding fault with the men at the piece. This annoyed the sergeant, and he called out, "Who are you, anyhow?" To which the officer replied, "I am Capt. A. Coward, of Gen. Jones's staff. Who are you?" "I am Sergt. A. Hero, of the Washington Artillery."
The singularity of names and meeting put all hands in a good-humor.
And that's how Capt. Asbury Coward met Sgt. Andrew Hero.
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