Civil War Union Brevet Major General. Born in Bourbon County, Kentucky, he received a private education, later he attended Harvard then transferred to West Point, where he graduated 8th in the class of 1851. Upon graduation, he began a 10 year cavalry career in the Southwest. In April 1861, while evacuating from Texas with other United States Regulars, he was imprisoned by zealous state patriots siding with the Confederacy. He was later paroled however the parole terms kept him at commissary general and West Point posts until his official exchange on August 27, 1862, and appointment as volunteer Colonel of the 146th New York Infantry. He served with the 146th and the Army of the Potomac through the Battle of Gettysburg, where on July 2, 1863, he assumed command of slain Brigadier General Stephen H. Weed's infantry brigade. Appointment to Brigadier General on July 23 and service in the inconclusive autumn campaigning at Mine Run and along the Rappahannock River followed. In November he was commissioned a Major in the Regulars. Then a brief midwinter appointment as chief of the Cavalry Bureau in Washington D.C., ended in February 1864 with assignment to the Army of the Cumberland. Through Major General William T. Sherman's Georgia campaign, he led the 2nd Cavalry Division. During the Battle of Atlanta in July he raided Covington, Georgia, and the South River area. Commendation for his efforts won him assignment as leader of the 2nd Division in Major General Andrew J. Smith's XVI Corps for Tennessee campaigning. His contingent was among the last of the major reinforcements to reach Major General George H. Thomas' force at Nashville; for his part in the Battle of Nashville he was brevetted Major General of Volunteers. At the end of the war he served as military commander of Mobile, Alabama. With other old elements from the Franklin and Nashville Campaign, he had participated in the siege and surrender of the city. On May 13, 1865, he was brevetted Brigadier General and Major General in the Regulars for war service; his resignation followed November 9, 1866. Working in real estate, he took up residence in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he died. He was the grandson of the second governor of Kentucky, James Garrard, whom Garrard County, Kentucky, is named for. His brothers were Union brevet Brigadier Generals Jeptha and Israel Garrard. His first cousin was Union Brigadier General Theophilus T. Garrard.