Theophilus T. Garrard
Union army general (1812–1902)

Theophilus Toulmin Garrard (June 7, 1812 – March 15, 1902) was a politician, Union general in the American Civil War, farmer, and businessman.
Early life and career
Garrard was born in Clay County, Kentucky near Manchester at the Goose Creek Salt Works (later Union Salt Works) to Colonel Daniel Garrard (1780–1886) and Lucinda Jane Toulmin (1790–1849). He was a grandson of Kentucky Governor James Garrard and cousin of Israel Garrard, Jeptha Garrard, and Kenner Garrard. Garrard attended Centre College in Danville, Kentucky.
On March 26, 1832, Garrard married Nancy Brawner, who died on March 31, just five days after their wedding. He then married Lucinda "Lucy" Burnham Lees on March 9, 1849; together they had eleven children, six boys and five girls.
Garrard ran for office in the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1841 and 1842, but was defeated both times. He ran again in 1843, beating his opponent, General Elijah Combs. He was reelected in 1844 with no opposition.
During the Mexican-American War he served as a captain of Company E, 16th U.S. Infantry, from March 5, 1847, until August 5, 1849, but never saw combat.
The public source identifies “Theophilus T. Garrard” as union army general (1812–1902). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Theophilus, Garrard and Union.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1710497. VIAF identifies the subject as 4199147665872660670006. The Library of Congress control number is no2016125671. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1812, 1902, 1780 and 1886.
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This entry incorporates text from “Theophilus T. Garrard” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.