R. D. Gardner

Confederate (CSV)

Lieutenant Colonel

Robert Davison Gardner

(1830 - 1906)

Home State: Virginia

Command Billet: Commanding Regiment

Branch of Service: Infantry

Unit: 4th Virginia Infantry

Before Sharpsburg

In 1847 he joined the infantry company from Montgomery County in the First Virginia Regiment for service in the Mexican War (to August 1848).1 By 1860 he was a Pulaski County resident making his living as a carpenter.2

He enlisted in the outfit that became Company C of the 4th Virginia Infantry on 17 April 1861 and was elected First Lieutenant. He was elected Captain on 25 July, and Lieutenant Colonel of the Regiment on 22 April 1862.3

On the Campaign

As he had been since at least mid-August, Gardner was in command of the Regiment on the Maryland Campaign. He took over the Brigade after Colonel Grigsby relieved the mortally wounded General Starke in command of the Divison.4

The rest of the War

He was seriously wounded in the jaw at Fredericksburg on 13 December 1862 and returned home to recover. He resigned from field service because of disability and took the post as Commander of the depot at Dublin, Virginia, in April 1864.3

After the War

He was elected clerk of the County and Circuit Courts of Pulaski in 1870,1 and served in that capacity at least until 1889.5 In 1893 he and his wife Belle applied for a Federal pension based on his Mexican War service.6

References & notes

The photo above is adapted from that reproduced in the frontpiece of Robertson,3 original source unknown.

Birth

12/27/1830; Montgomery County, VA

Death

07/12/1906; Dublin, VA; burial in Newbern, Pulaski County, VA

Notes

1 From capsule bio published in 1884 - transcribed online at RootsWeb.
Brock, R. A., Hardesty's Historical and Geographical Encyclopedia, Special Virginia Edition, NY and Richmond: H.H. Hardesty, 1884 [AotW citation 281]

2 From a transcription of the 1860 US Federal Census of Pulaski County, Virginia.
Weaver, Jeffrey C., webmaster, New River Notes, Published c. 1998, first accessed 15 August 2005, <http://www.ls.net/~newriver/nrv.htm>, Source page: /va/pula1860.htm [AotW citation 282]

3 Robertson, James I., PhD, 4th Virginia Infantry, Lynchburg (Va): H. E. Howard, Inc., 1982, pg. 80 [AotW citation 283]

4 US War Department, The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (OR), 128 vols., Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1880-1901, various citations [AotW citation 284]

5 From the Pulaski Gazetteer 1888-89.
Weaver, Jeffrey C., webmaster, New River Notes, Published c. 1998, first accessed 15 August 2005, <http://www.ls.net/~newriver/nrv.htm>, Source page: va/cvb1888.htm [AotW citation 285]

6 Wolfe, Barbara Schull, transcriber, Index to Mexican War Pension Applications, Indianapolis: Heritage House, 1985 [AotW citation 286]

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