Martin Davis Hardin

Martin Davis Hardin
Born	June 26, 1837(1837-06-26) Jacksonville, Illinois
Died	December 12, 1923(1923-12-12) (aged 86)
Allegiance	United States of America Union
Service/branch	United States Army Union Army
Years of service	1859 - 1870
Rank	Brigadier General
Battles/wars	American Civil War

Martin Davis Hardin (June 26, 1837 – December 12, 1923) was a brigadier general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He was appointed a brigadier general on July 6, 1864, to rank from July 2, 1864, the date of U.S. Senate confirmation of his promotion.

Martin D. Hardin was born in Jacksonville, Illinois, the son of John J. Hardin. He was a family friend and protege of Abraham Lincoln (it was at the Hardin family home that Lincoln first met his wife, Mary Todd). Hardin graduated from West Point in the Class of 1859, and was an aide to Robert E. Lee in the hanging of John Brown soon after. He lost an arm in the Civil War. After the war he became a lawyer in Chicago, and had a winter home in St. Augustine, Florida. His second wife, Amelia McLaughlin (1863–1939) was the sister-in-law of Irene Castle, the famous dancer. Hardin spent his last years in the famous "Union Generals' House" at 20 Valencia Street in St. Augustine, Florida (saved from a proposed demolition by Flagler College in the 1980s thru the concerted action of local history lovers). Hardin was one of the last surviving Civil War generals of either side at the time of his death in 1923. He is buried, with his wife, at the U.S. National Cemetery in St. Augustine. His widow honored him by building a chapel (complete with a statue of St. Martin) on the grounds of the Mission of Nombre de Dios in St. Augustine.

See also

• List of American Civil War generals

References

• Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher, Civil War High Commands. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001. ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.
• Hardin biography
• David Nolan, The Houses of St. Augustine, Pineapple Press, 1995.