Robert Archelaus Hardaway (February 2, 1829 – April 27, 1899) was an artillery officer in the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia during the American Civil War.

Hardaway’s command moved to the Virginia Peninsula, where it fought at the Battle of Seven Pines in the division of Maj. Gen. D. H. Hill.

Col. Stapleton Crutchfield, Jackson’s chief of artillery, objected to the promotion, claiming that Hardaway was a fine gunner but hard on both men and horses.

[1] As a major, Hardaway became second in command of Lt. Col. John J. Garnett’s artillery battalion, attached to the division of Maj. Gen. Robert H. Anderson.

The division fought at the Battle of Chancellorsville directly under the command of General Robert E. Lee.

General Lee had Hardaway assemble a group of rifled guns to bombard the federal camps on morning of May 4, 1863.

In the Battle of the Wilderness, Hardaway commanded his battalion in the corps of Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell in the portion of the artillery contingent led by Col. J. Thompson Brown.

[3] When the corps, led by Jubal Early left to defend Lynchburg, Virginia, Hardaway’s battalion remained behind.

Hardaway’s gunners served under Gordon in the Appomattox Campaign, firing one of the last shots before Lee’s surrender.