Asbury Coward

Asbury Coward (September 19, 1835 – April 28, 1925) was a school leader, Confederate Army officer, and South Carolina Superintendent of Education. He served as Superintendent of The Citadel.

He was born on the Quenby Plantation outside Charleston, South Carolina,[1] and graduated from South Carolina Military Academy (now The Citadel) in 1854. He and classmate Micah Jenkins established the King's Mountain Military School in Yorkville in 1855.[2] It closed at the start of the American Civil War. It reopened after the war but the boarding school struggled with the challenging times and closed.[2]

During the Civil War, Coward was commissioned as a colonel and served under General James Longstreet in Tennessee and Georgia.[2] He was also a member of the 5th South Carolina Cavalry Regiment and an assistant adjutant on Col. David Rumph Jones' staff.[3][4] In one of his reports, Gen. Robert E. Lee described Coward as "one of the best Colonels in his army."[3]

He served as president of the Kings Mountain, North Carolina, centennial committee.

In 1890, Coward was named Superintendent of The Citadel. He remained in that office until 1908 and died in 1925.[2] He is buried at Rosehill Cemetery in York County.[5]

The Daughters of the American Revolution erected a monument honoring him at Kings Mountain National Military Park in Blacksburg.[6] The Citadel has a collection of his letters.[7] Winthrop University has a small collection of his letters.[8] His memoir was published in 1968.[9]

References

  1. ^ "Asbury Coward".
  2. ^ a b c d Kara, Klein. "Colonel Asbury Coward, CSA (1890-1908) - The Citadel - Charleston, SC". www.citadel.edu.
  3. ^ a b "Col. Asbury Coward Unanimously Elected Superintendent of the South Carolina Military Academy". The Newberry Herald and News. September 11, 1890. Retrieved April 28, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ "Col. Asbury Coward unanimously chosen by the Board of Visitors". The Herald. September 10, 1890. Retrieved April 28, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ "A Coward was a soldier of God | Columbia Star". www.thecolumbiastar.com. 5 April 2013.
  6. ^ "Kings Mountain Colonel Asbury Coward Marker | NCpedia". www.ncpedia.org.
  7. ^ "Coward, Asbury Collection · The Citadel Archives Digital Collections". citadeldigitalarchives.omeka.net.
  8. ^ Coward, Asbury (January 1, 2015). "Col. Asbury Coward Papers - Accession 600 - M259 (308)". Manuscript Collection.
  9. ^ Coward, Asbury (June 18, 1968). "The South Carolinians: Colonel Asbury Coward's memoirs". Vantage Press – via Google Books.
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