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Col. Aaron Bascom Hardcastle, a native of Caroline County, Md., and son of Edward Burke Hardcastle and Mary Ann Lockwood, of Delaware, died at his home, in Easton, Md., February 10, 1915. He was born in Denton July 5, 1836. One brother was the late Capt. Edmund Lafayette Hardcastle, a graduate of West Point Military Academy July 1, 1846, who was twice promoted for gallantry in the Mexican War, and another was the late William R. Hardcastle, a gallant Confederate soldier. Colonel Hardcastle entered the United States army from civil life in 1855 and became a second lieutenant in the 6th United States Infantry. During the Utah expedition against the Mormons he served as aid-de-camp on the staff of Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston and accompanied him on his perilous horseback ride from California to Texas to join the Confederate army in the summer of 1861. He recruited a battalion of Mississippians and Alabamians which commanded with the rank of major. General Bragg in his special report on the battle of Shiloh, says: "At daylight on Sunday, April 6, 1862, the oreder was given to advance. An attack upon the skirmishers in front, commanded by Major Hardcastle, had been handsomely resisted by that promising young officer, and half an hour later the battle was fierce. In Wood's Brigade, which distinguished itself in the capture of a battery, Hardcastle's Battalion won honor; and its brave commander, at one time seperated from his men, seized a musket and jooined the 16th Alabama in a charge." Colonel Hardcastle was one of the original members of the Charles S. Winder Camp, U. C. V., at Easton, of which Col. Oswald Tilghman is Commander.
SOURCE: Confederate Veteran Magazine, July, 1915.
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