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MEMPHIS, HARRIS FAMILY CONFEDERATE ARCHIVE.

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:1,500.00 - 2,500.00 USD
MEMPHIS, HARRIS FAMILY CONFEDERATE ARCHIVE.
MEMPHIS, HARRIS FAMILY CONFEDERATE ARCHIVE. Adlai O. Harris Papers, 1844-1884 (mostly 1855-1862). 10 Confederate soldier's letters, 13 other ALsS, 5 DsS, 11 photographs, 22 bonds and banknotes, 1 ticket. Rev. Adlai O. Harris of Memphis, Tenn., saw his son, John W. Harris, commissioned as a Captain in a Tennessee Infantry regiment in an eager rush to fight for the Confederacy. John's service was short, memorable, and ultimately highly painful. The first soldier's letter in the collection was written from Corinth, Miss., during the siege in May 1862. The relatively raw John Haines describes the desperate Confederate situation as only an officer could see it: "Our plan was that Van Dorn & Price were to attack them at daylight yesterday, and after they were fairly engaged, we were to advance with our full force from the center and try and drive them towards our left, and away from their entrenchments. From bad management though on the part of Van Dorn in not taking the right road led him in an entirely different direction from the enemy & thus the plans for the whole fight were completely ruined..." Haines survived Corinth and the two bruising years that followed, serving mostly in his home state. His letters home are well-written, well-informed, and provide a strong sense of the morale and activities of the Confederate forces. Following their retreat to Chattanooga in July 1863, Harris refused to be glum, despite the miserable conditions. "Our Army here is in fine spirits," he wrote, "and but very little, if any, discouraged by our late reverses. They are all now without any tents at all, only one tent being allowed to a Regiment, and two to Brigade Hd Qtrs. We fortunately lost very little in our retreat and are still very comfortably situated." At the same time, a friend on Nathan Bedford Forrest's staff attempted to get Harris to join Forrest, but two generals, Smith and Polk, refused to release him. Even after the Confederates were driven from Chattanooga, Harris retained a positive outlook. As the Atlanta Campaign began haltingly in March 1864, he predicted that the great battle would be fought in Virginia in the spring, but "our campaign will be a very active one, though with not much fighting. Everything here is in the finest condition and I have never seen anything like the spirit that now pervades the entire Army, and not a doubt is felt as to our success this Spring, in less than three months we expect to be either in Kentucky or Middle Tenn. Action, anything is better than remaining still at this place, and I am glad that we are soon to commence operations." Harris's predictions failed on every score: two months later he was killed in action near Dallas, Ga., shot in the head while he was attempting to urge his troops forward. Among the miscellaneous items in the collection are two deeds to plots in the Elmwood Cemetery (Memphis, Tenn.) made out to A.O. Harris, 1860 -- one designated for the Colored Section, along with a printed circular letter from the Elmwood Cemetery to owners of lots in the Morris Cemetery, 1857, and a hand-drawn map of Harris plots. An indenture, 1844, between William Yates and the captain of a steamboat states: "said Boat has this day hired of said Yates a Negro boy named Abram as a Cabin Boy on said Boat at $8- per month for his services -- it is distinctly agreed that said Boat Wilda is not liable for any accidents by Drowning or otherwise that might happen to said boy during his term of service..." Also among the miscellany are a number of bank notes and bonds, including two $2 notes from the Bank of Memphis (1856, with an engraving of ox-drawn wagon); and a collection of State of Mississippi cotton bonds: nine $5 bonds, eight $10 bonds, a $20 bond, and two $50 bonds. Apparently the Harrises did not fare much better in cotton much than they did in the war. Finally, the collection is accompanied by a ninth-plate ambrotype identified as John W. Harris, a ninth-plate of Edward Reade Harris (John's brother and a fellow Confederate soldier, represented in the collection by one letter), a ninth plate tintype of Ed Harris' wife, Lucie, two unidentified tintypes of children (possible Ed Harris's), 3 cartes de visite, 3 photobooth strips and a highly attractive ticket to "Col. Pierce's Lecture" on the Civil War, with an engraving of a Union infantry charge. Condition fine except for the bonds and bank notes, which show considerable wear (perhaps from frustration at their value). A small, but well written collection documenting one of the die-hards of the Confederacy. PLEASE NOTE: THIS LOT WILL BE SOLD ON EBAY LIVE AUCTIONS BETWEEN 5:00-6:00pm EASTERN DAYLIGHT TIME ON MAY 10, 2002. REGISTER NOW TO BID LIVE ONLINE THE DAY OF THE SALE! (EST 1500-2500)
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