Severely Wounded in Mexico; Mortally Wounded at Shiloh

Adley H. Gladden

You can read a lot of interesting information about the Battle of Shiloh at Seven Score and Ten. Here’s an obituary of a Confederate general who was mortally wounded early in the battle.

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch April 19, 1862:

The late Gen. A. H. Gladden.

–We take from the Columbia South Carolinian the following sketch of this gallant officer, who fell at Shiloh:

He was born in Fairfield, S. C., October 28, 1810. In 1830 he removed to Columbia, and entered into the business of a cotton merchant. He served in the Florida campaign in the Rich and Rifle company. On his return he resumed his former business, and was in 1841 appointed by President Tyler Postmaster of Columbia, which office he held during that administration. 1845 he volunteered for the Mexican war in the Palmetto regiment, and was elected Major — Pierce M. Butler being Colonel, and J. P. Dickinson, Lieutenant Colonel. He fought gallantly, as his whole regiment did, at Contreras, Churubusco, Chapultepec, and the gates of Mexico, and upon the fall of Col. Butler and Lieutenant Colonel Dickinson, he was chosen Colonel of his regiment. When Gen. Quitman called for a flag to be raised upon the gates of Balen, Col. Gladden handed the Palmetto flag to Lieut Selleck, of South Carolina, who planted it upon the well — it being the first American flag raised on taking the city of Mexico.

Gladden's colonel dies in Mexico

Lieut. Selleck, being ordered down by Gen. Quitman, handed the flag to Col. Gladden, who bore it until he fell severely wounded by one of the last shots fired as the city was entered.

The reports of the general officers to the War Department hear the highest testimony to the gallantry and great capacity for discipline of this distinguished officer.

After the war, he settled in New Orleans, where he remained in mercantile business until the secession of South Carolina. When the State of South Carolina seceded, he was appointed and accepted the post of Lieut. Colonel in Gregg’s First regiment, and immediately reported for duty. But the pressure from his adopted State of Louisiana forced him to return there where, as a member of her Convention, he did good service in promoting her secession. Soon after, he accepted a regiment and went to Pensacola, when the President soon sent him a commission as Brigadier-General in the Confederate service. He was placed in command there, and all who know him know that his command was behind no other in drill and efficiency.

You can see a Columbia, South Carolina monument to the Palmetto Regiment and its service in Mexico here.

In his official Shiloh report corps commander Braxton Bragg wrote this about Adley Hogan Gladden:

Brig. Gen. A. H. Gladden, First Brigade of this [J. M. Withers] division, fell early in the action, mortally wounded, while gallantly leading his command in a successful charge. No better soldier lived. No truer man or nobler patriot ever shed his blood in a just cause.

Battle of Shiloh April 6th 1862