Born October 28, 1810 at Gladden’s Grove, just north of Winnsboro, South Carolina, Adley Hogan Gladden moved to Columbia in 1830 and became a cotton broker. In 1836 Gladden volunteered to go with the Richland Rifle Corps in the Seminole Uprising in Florida. He returned to Columbia and in 1837 married Mary Elizabeth Gandy in Ainsley Hall Mansion, then known as Columbia Theological Seminary.

He resumed his former business, and was in 1841 was appointed by President Tyler as Postmaster of Columbia, which office he held during that administration. He was Quartermaster of the 22nd South Carolina Militia; first President of the Boston Club, which he chartered; and in 1845 volunteered for service in the Mexican War in the Palmetto Regiment. He was elected Major — Pierce M. Butler being Colonel, and J. P. Dickinson, Lieutenant Colonel.

Gladden fought gallantly, as his whole regiment did, at Contreras, Churubusco, Chapultepec, and the gates of Mexico City, and upon the fall at Churubusco of Col. Butler and Lieutenant Colonel Dickinson, Gladden was chosen Colonel of his regiment.

When Gen. John A. Quitman called for a flag to be raised upon the Belen Gate, Col. Gladden handed the Palmetto flag to Lieut. Selleck, of South Carolina, who planted it upon the well — it reportedly being the first American flag raised on taking the city of 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.

Gladden was honored by the state upon bringing his troops home and addressed the legislature on November 20, 1847. He was captain of the Governor’s Guard; 1850 Bursa of South carolina College; and in 1851 elected Intendent (Mayor) of Columbia. His wife died in 1851. A Master Mason, Gladden was re-elected Intendent in 1852.

In 1853 Gladden settled in New Orleans, where he remained in mercantile business until the secession of South Carolina. He firm, Purvis, Gladden and Heard Cotton Factor and Commission Merchants, was located at 159 Gravier Street, and later at 55 St. Charles Street. He was the first president of the Pickwick Club which organized the first Mardi Gras parade with a theme. It was the first parade to have floats roll down the streets of New Orleans. In 1860 Gladden was chairman of the South Carolinians in New Orleans for States Rights.

When the State of South Carolina seceded, he was appointed and accepted the post of Lieut. Colonel in Maxcy 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 its Convention, he promoted her secession. Soon after, he accepted a regiment in the Confederate service and went to Pensacola.

He signed the Louisiana secession and took the 1st Louisiana Brigade to Pensacola, Florida, under General Braxton Bragg. Gladden, whom Bragg called “the Bengal Tiger”, was promoted to brigadier general on September 30, 1861, to rank immediately.

Gladden apparently was in command of Richard H. Anderson’s brigade for a while, for on October 12, 1861 Gladden was ordered to relinquish command of Anderson’s brigade and take over Daniel Ruggles’ brigade. Anderson was second in command to Bragg, and when an undisclosed “disability” interfered with his duties, Gladden was given temporary command of the Pensacola post on October 22. On November 22 Union forces at Fort Pickens began bombarding the Confederate positions at Pensacola. Gladden’s brigade manned a sand battery at Fort McRee and was hotly engaged. For two days his men were pounded so heavily that fish in the bay were killed by the concussion of the battle. Although the fort suffered heavy damage, Gladden’s losses were slight and Bragg praised him for his defense.

Gladden’s handling of his brigade impressed Bragg. When Bragg was offered command of Confederate forces in north Mississippi, he considered Gladden an indispensable officer. On January 6, 1862, Bragg wired the secretary of war to discuss the new position. He expressed concern over the lack of discipline among the Confederate troops in Mississippi and asked to take a contingent of three regiments from Pensacola with him. This unit would be used as a role model of discipline around which other troops could be organized. Bragg declared, “I should desire Brigadier General Gladden to command them.”

This plan was not followed up, but Bragg did find another use for Gladden. Disliking the performance of General Leroy P. Walker, who commanded at Mobile, Alabama, Bragg transferred him to Montgomery on February 1 and gave his brigade to Gladden.

Of Gladden, Bragg wrote, “From his energy, zeal, great efficiency as a disciplinarian and infantry instincts .. .I hope for the happiest results.” Gladden was in Mobile for only a short time when Bragg reported conditions there had changed much for the better. In early March Gladden’s duties were expanded when he was also placed over the garrison at Pensacola. He apparently never exercised this command, however, for by March 9 he was near Purdy, Tennessee, commanding two brigades under Leonidas Polk.

Throughout March Gladden kept an eye on Union movements in his area. By April he was leading a brigade of Alabama infantry in J. M. Withers’ Division of Bragg’s Corps. In the attack at Shiloh on April 6, 1862, his brigade was posted on the right of William Hardee’s Corps. Charging in the first line of battle, Gladden was soon hit by a shell fragment or cannon ball that mangled his arm. His arm was quickly amputated on the field, and Gladden was taken to P. G. T. Beauregard’s headquarters near Corinth, Mississippi. Mortally wounded, there he died on April 12, 1862.

The army correspondent for the New Orleans Delta, writing from Corinth, gave a detailed account of Gladden’s gallant conduct.

“ ‘So forward let us go’ were the words which he had just exultantly uttered when his faithful friend and aide Capt. Scott from Mobile observed a sudden shock and thrill of his body as a crushing fire shot and shell came tearing through the camp. His bridle arm fell helpless and raising his right arm to his brow he said: ‘Scott I am struck, but let’s go on.’ His wounded and exhausted charger, as if in conscious sympathy with his master, moved but a few steps when the general said: ‘It is a serious hurt! Help me down, Scott.’ His aide quickly assisted him to alight and applying his hand to the wounded limb of his general found that the left arm near the shoulder was crushed to a jelly. An ambulance was called, and he was placed in it and borne to the rear, Capt. Scott driving. . . .”

A sergeant of the Louisiana infantry returning with the general’s bloody horse remarked: “. . .I was in the Crimean and Indian wars, and I saw the best fighting in those campaigns but I never saw such fighting as the ‘Old Bengal’ got out of out boys today, two hundred of whom he persuaded to continue from the battle though their time ran out. I never saw any general bear himself like that little man.

“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.”

General Pierre G. T. Beauregard describes Gladden’s death:

"In the same quarter of the field all of Withers' division, including Gladden's brigade, reinforced by Breckenridge's whole reserve, soon became engaged, and Prentiss' entire line, though fighting stoutly, was pressed back in confusion. We early lost the services of the gallant Gladden, a man of soldierly aptitudes and experience, who, after a marked influence upon the issue in his quarter of the field, fell mortally wounded."

Gladden is buried in the Magnolia Cemetery at Mobile, Alabama.

A H Gladden