Following a drunken fight in which Rufus stabbed a man, the family moved to Lost Prairie in Lafayette County, Arkansas along the Red River when Augustus was one.

[9] Nonetheless, Augustus Garland represented the slave Abby Guy in two appeals to the Arkansas Supreme Court in 1857 and 1861, ultimately winning her freedom.

[10] Garland became one of Arkansas's most prominent attorneys and was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States in 1860 with the assistance of Reverdy Johnson.

[14] Four days after approving the secession ordinance, the convention delegates appointed Garland to the Provisional Confederate Congress,[15] where he was the youngest member of the body.

[19] In 1864 was appointed to the Confederate States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Charles B. Mitchel in a close vote against Albert Pike.

He was nonetheless forbidden to resume his legal practice without taking the Ironclad Oath, which the United States Congress had required of all Confederate government or military officials, per a law passed on January 24, 1865.

[24] Garland had established himself as a key player in Arkansas politics, a strong conservative capable of working with the federal government, and widely recognized as a sharp legal mind.

Garland and others worked within the Democratic Party of Arkansas to make the choice to take the oath and fight the Republicans at the ballot box in November 1868.

While he was willing to help fight Congressional Reconstruction and Republican rule in Arkansas, Garland sought to avoid engaging in "fruitless" political efforts while his personal finances recovered.

[30] During the conflict known as the Brooks-Baxter War, Garland became a primary strategist for Governor Elisha Baxter and served as deputy secretary of state.

Garland organized, as president of the Little Rock Bar, a resolution of many prominent attorneys condemning Judge Whytock's order that elevated Brooks to the governor's mansion.

Garland read the proclamation from Grant endorsing the General Assembly's restoration of Baxter to a throng in front of the Anthony House to applause.

Baxter began re-appointing officeholders from pre-Civil War and the Confederate government; a political realignment had taken place, ending Reconstruction in Arkansas and returning the state to Democratic control.

At the three-day Democratic state convention beginning September 8, 1874, Baxter was twice nominated as gubernatorial candidate but refused to accept both times.

Republicans did not nominate candidates in protest, believing the election was illegal and appealing to the United States Congress to declare the 1868 constitution the law of the land.

Garland resigned from the Senate in 1885 after accepting the appointment of Attorney General of the United States by newly elected President Grover Cleveland, becoming the first Arkansan to receive a cabinet post.

Garland was ordered to bring a suit in the name of the United States to invalidate the Bell patent, breaking their monopoly of telephone technology, but refused to do so.

A year-long congressional investigation and constant public attention affected his work as Attorney General, however, despite having to serve under a cloud of suspicion, he was supported by President Cleveland.