Background
Martin D. Hardin was born in Jacksonville, Illinois, the son of John Jay Hardin.
Martin D. Hardin was born in Jacksonville, Illinois, the son of John Jay Hardin.
Hardin graduated from West Point in the Class of 1859, and was an aide to Robert East. Lee in the hanging of John Brown soon after.
He was appointed a brigadier general on July 6, 1864, to rank from July 2, 1864, the date of United States. Senate confirmation of his promotion. He was a family friend and protégé of Abraham Lincoln. He lost his left arm in the Mine Run Campaign, but continued serving in the army.
He was mustered out of the volunteer service in June 1864 but returned to active duty on July 2 with an appointment to brigadier general.
General Hardin commanded a division in the XXII Corps during the battle of Fort Stevens. After retiring in December 1870, he became a lawyer in Chicago, and had a winter home in Saint Augustine, Florida.
Hardin spent his last years in the famous "Union Generals" House" at 20 Valencia Street in Saint 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.
His widow honored him by building a chapel (complete with a statue of Street Martin) on the grounds of the Mission of Nombre de Dios in Saint