Alfred Grattan Howard was born on September 8, 1839, in South Carolina, to William and Nancy Howard. His father was a farmer who owned $600 of real estate in 1850. He grew up and attended school in Edgefield District, South Carolina. He supported the Confederacy during the Civil War, declaring his “devotion to the noble cause.”

 

In the early 1860s, he was a cadet at the Citadel, the state’s military academy. In August 1863, one writer observed that he had “excellent standing in his class” and had “family connexions of the highest standing and respectability.” Another writer declared him a “young man of liberal education, thorough military training, soldierly bearing and great dash of character.” He received a commission as a 1^st lieutenant in Company E of the 26^th South Carolina Infantry on June 17, 1864. He took part in the siege of Petersburg. He received his parole in Augusta, Georgia, on May 31, 1865.

 

He married Cornelia Eggleston on December 16, 1866, and they had at least six children: Alfred, born around 1868; Cornelia, born around 1869; Beverly, born around 1871; Mary, born around 1873; Anna, born around 1876; Paul, born around 1879. They lived in Augusta, and Howard worked as a clerk in a dry goods store. By 1870, he owned $5,000 of real estate and $1,200 of personal property. By 1900, he was working as a farmer. His wife died in the early 1900s, and he passed away of “senility” in Augusta on August 17, 1923.

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