Civil War Confederate General.
He was born in 1834 on Quenby Plantation outside of Charleston, SC. His parents were Jesse Coward and Keziah Anne Dubois. Asbury Coward graduated from The Citadel Military Academy, Charleston South Carolina in 1854. He moved to Yorkville South Carolina, in 1854 to study law. Coward was the son of a low country rice planter. Coward persuaded his Citadel classmate, Micah Jenkins, to come to Yorkville. Together they founded Kings Mountain Military Academy in January 1855. The academy was designed as a prep school for the Citadel. The school quickly gained an excellent reputation both for its discipline and its academics. When South Carolina seceded from the Union, Coward and Jenkins both enlisted, and their academy, which had nearly 200 cadets, closed its doors.
Asbury Coward entered the Confederate Army as captain in the adjutant general's department. He was soon transferred to the field where he was advanced to major after the Battle of Malvern Hill. A few months later, on 8/12/1861 he was made Colonel in the 5th Regiment and assumed command on 15th Nov" 1862.
Not all of Coward's fighting was in Virginia. He was in the battles of Chickamauga, Chattanooga, Lookout Mountain and Knoxville plus a number of smaller skirmishes in the western campaign. At the end of the war Coward was with Lee at Farmville and Appomattox. He was wounded at the Battle near Chaffin's Farm, Virginia in 1864.
Following the surrender Coward returned to Yorkville with his wife and growing family. Coward had married Eliza Corbett Blum on Christmas Day 1856, in Yorkville. Eventually the couple had 17 children and outlived all but one.
Coward reopened the Kings Mountain Military Academy, but things were not as before. Micah Jenkins had been killed in the war. Not many families could afford a boarding school. The South was under military rule, and military cadets were not allowed to use rifles. Colonel Coward reluctantly closed the school's days in 1886.
For four years before closing the Academy, Coward also held the office of South Carolina state superintendent of instruction (1884-1886). In 1890 Coward became superintendent of the Citadel Military Academy in Charleston. The Citadel made great strides under the leadership of Coward who gained the respect and affection of every student body he ever commanded
The effect of Coward's work on education in general caused the University of South Carolina to award him the honorary degree of doctor of laws in 1896. President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Coward to the West Point Board of Visitors.
Coward retired from the post of commandant of the Citadel in 1908, a position he had held since 1890. At that time he was awarded a Carnegie Pension for his service to mankind.