Comments on: Witness to murder: Henry R Rathbone

By: Tour Marm

Tour Marm — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 04:00:32 +0000

Very tragic ending for all.

I was under the impression that despite his wound from Booth, said to be from the shoulder to elbow down to the bone, that he mustered the strength to remove the piece of wood Booth had wedged into the door that separated the audience from the room that led to the box. This allowed the surgeon in.

There were also reports that Mrs. Lincoln, who was hysterical, kept pulling on his wounded arm.

Are these true to your knowledge?

By: Another Order Up and Some Assorted Sides « Bull Runnings

Another Order Up and Some Assorted Sides « Bull Runnings — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 12:10:44 +0000

[...] Another Order Up and Some Assorted Sides Look under PAGES on the sidebar to the right. You’ll see I’ve added another OOB, this time one for Union artillery at the battle. I’ll get the Confederate arty up tomorrow. I want to thank Ranger Jim Burgess, Museum Specialist at Manassas, for providing the basis for these red-leg OOB’s. As with the full OOBs, I’ll update these as more information becomes available. I’m also going to try to get caught up on official reports by posting those written by the subjects of the biographical sketches I’ve already posted – for example, Tyler and Sherman. I’ll get Ayres’s sketch up this weekend, along with a bit on some very interesting trivia concerning his gravesite in Arlington. One other post will cover some info I posted over at Behind Antietam on the Web. So tune in over the weekend. [...]

By: Brian

Brian — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 13:40:39 +0000

Thanks very much Harry. So Harris was not exactly a Colonel at BR1. Poetic license, I guess.

A reasonable person wouldn’t be up so late reading blogs–let alone digging for artillerymen–but rather, wait for the morning like most folk. Nothing reasonable about any of this, though :)

By: Harry

Harry — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 05:39:13 +0000

Brian,

You are a sick and twisted S.O.B. to do this to me after midnight!

Harris’ Cullum # is 1940. He was a graduate of the four-year class of 1861 (June). Upon graduation, he was appointed Bvt. 2nd Lt. of Ordnance, and Cullum says he commanded a section of artillery at BR1, but not which battery. Cullum also notes that he was the son of Ira Harris, late US Senator form New York.

I found 1/4 of his cadet photograph of him here: http://gettysburg.cdmhost.com/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/p4016coll2&CISOPTR=516&REC=17. The notes with this scrap of photo say he was with Company A, 2nd Arty in July 1861. That was Tidball’s battery. (It seems to have been pretty common for 1861 grads to latch on to staff or arty positions as the army took the field that summer and no official record of their attachments exist.) Tidball did not file a report, and Harris is not listed in the index of the recent biography of Tidball. Barry mentions a Harris in his report:

“Where all did so well it would be invidious to make distinctions, and I therefore simply give the names of all the officers engaged: viz: Major Hunt, Captains Carlisle, Ayres, Griffin, Tidball, and Arnold; Lieutenants Platt, Thompson, Ransom, Webb, Barriger, Greene, Edwards, Dresser, Wilson, Throckmorton, Cushing, Harris, Butler, Fuller, Lyford, Hill, Benjamin, Babbitt, Hains, Ames, Hasbrouck, Kensel, Harrison, Reed, Barlow, Noyes, Kirby, and Elderkin.”

Lots of 1861ers in that list.

The report of Lt. Oliver Green, in command of Battery G, 2nd US (Davies’ Brigade in Miles’ Division), reads:

“My officers, Lieutenants Cushing, Harris, and Butler, were coolly and assiduously attentive to their duties during the day.”

Heitman says Harris died 11/6/1895. The 1885 USMA reunion book lists him as living at 490 Euclid Ave, Cleveland, OH. His necrology is in the 1896 volume, pages 86-91, featuring a full page photo that I emailed to you separately.

Can I go to bed now?