John Stewart Hard

In 1860 he was a 17 year old clerk living with his parents - a bookkeeper and a school teacher - and siblings near Graniteville in the Edgefield District, SC. On 1 June 1861 he enrolled there as Captain of Company F of the 7th South Carolina Infantry.

"Major White commanded at Antietam [on 17 September 1862] after the wounding of [Colonel] Aiken, and until he was himself killed at the enemy's battery, the farthest advance of the day. Captain Hard had command at the close ..."

He was promoted to Major immediately after the battle, to date from 17 September 1862. He was killed just over one year later "... [he] led [the Regiment] for a short while at Chickamauga after the death of [Lieutenant Colonel Elbert] Bland, and fell at the head of his regiment on top of Pea Ridge." Family lore says his body was escorted back home to Graniteville for burial by a family slave. He was at his death the youngest field-grade officer in the Brigade at just 20 years old.

The quotes above from Dickert.1 His service from his Compiled Service Records,2 online from fold3. Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860. His gravesite is on Findagrave, which has him as John Stuart Hard. Thanks to Chelsea Briggs for supplying his photograph, from an exhibit in the Confederate Relic Room, Columbia, SC.

John's older brother Benjamin William Hard (1838-1913) was also in Company F, promoted during his service to Lieutenant. A collection of their letters was narrated and published by Laura E Estilow in Doing My Duty: the Wartime Experiences of John S. Hard (1992).

12/02/1842; Charleston, SC

09/20/1863; Chickamauga, GA; burial in Graniteville Cemetery, Graniteville, SC