James H. Harris

James H. Harris
Sergeant James H. Harris
Born	1828 Saint Mary's County, Maryland, US
Died	January 28, 1898 (aged 69–70)
Place of burial	Arlington National Cemetery
Allegiance	United States Union
Service/branch	United States Army Union Army
Years of service	1864–1867
Rank	Sergeant
Unit	Company B, 38th Regiment United States Colored Troops
Battles/wars	American Civil War • Battle of Chaffin's Farm
Awards	Medal of Honor

James H. Harris (1828 – January 28, 1898) was a Union Army soldier during the American Civil War. He earned the highest military decoration in the United States—the Medal of Honor—for his actions at the Battle of Chaffin's Farm. He was African American.

YouTube Encyclopedic

1/3
Views:
419
439
41 493

Transcription

Biography

Born in Saint Mary's County, Maryland, Harris worked as a farmer before joining the U.S. Army from Great Mills at age 36. He enlisted on February 14, 1864, as a private in Company B of the 38th United States Colored Troops regiment. He was promoted to corporal five months later, on July 25, and to sergeant two months after that, on September 10.^[1]

At the Battle of Chaffin's Farm, on September 29, 1864, Harris' regiment was among a division of black troops assigned to attack the center of the Confederate defenses at New Market Heights. The defenses consisted of two lines of abatis and one line of palisades manned by Brigadier General John Gregg's Texas Brigade. The attack was met with intense Confederate fire; over fifty percent of the black troops were killed, captured, or wounded. The initial attack stalled at the abatis, but when a renewed effort began, Harris and two other men of the 38th USCT, Private William H. Barnes and Sergeant Edward Ratcliff, ran at the head of the assault. Being the first to breach the defenses, the three soldiers engaged the Confederates in hand-to-hand combat. They were soon joined by the remainder of their division, and the Confederate force was routed.^[2]

Over seven years later, on February 18, 1874, he was issued the Medal of Honor for "[g]allantry in the assault" at Chaffin's Farm.^[3] Harris died at the approximate age of 69 and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia.^[1]

Medal of Honor citation

Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company B, 38th U.S. Colored Troops. Place and date: At New Market Heights, Va., September 29, 1864. Entered service at:------. Birth: St. Marys County, Md. Date of issue: February 18, 1874.^[3]

Citation:

Gallantry in the assault.^[3]

United States Colored Troops Memorial Statue

James H. Harris is specifically honored and memorialized by the United States Colored Troops Memorial Statue in Lexington Park, Maryland (in St. Mary's County, where he grew up and also worked as a farmer). The informational kiosk at the memorial mentions him specifically.

Notes

^ ^a ^b Hanna (2002), p. 35–36.
^ Hanna (2002), p. 36.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Civil War Medal of Honor recipients - (A-L)". United States Army Center of Military History. August 6, 2009. Archived from the original on 2008-10-18. Retrieved 2009-08-12.

References

Claxton, Melvin; Puls, Mark (2006). Uncommon Valor: A Story of Race, Patriotism, and Glory in the Final Battles of the Civil War. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. ISBN 9780471468233. OCLC 845865418.
Dyer, Frederick H (1908). A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion. Des Moines, IA: Dyer Pub. Co. ASIN B01BUFJ76Q.
Hanna, Charles W. (2002). African American Recipients of the Medal of Honor. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. p. 199. ISBN 0-7864-1355-7.
War Department, U.S. (1880). The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. OCLC 857196196.

American Civil War

Origins

Origins	Timeline leading to the War Bleeding Kansas Border states Compromise of 1850 John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry Kansas-Nebraska Act Lincoln–Douglas debates Missouri Compromise Nullification crisis Origins of the American Civil War Panic of 1857 Popular sovereignty Secession South Carolina Declaration of Secession States' rights President Lincoln's 75,000 volunteers
Slavery	African Americans Cornerstone Speech Crittenden Compromise Dred Scott v. Sandford Emancipation Proclamation Fire-Eaters Fugitive slave laws Plantations in the American South Positive good Slave Power Slavery in the United States Treatment of slaves in the United States Uncle Tom's Cabin
Abolitionism	Abolitionism in the United States Susan B. Anthony James G. Birney John Brown Frederick Douglass William Lloyd Garrison Lane Debates on Slavery Elijah Parish Lovejoy J. Sella Martin Lysander Spooner George Luther Stearns Thaddeus Stevens Charles Sumner Caning Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad

Combatants
Theaters
Campaigns
Battles
States

Combatants

Union	Army Navy Marine Corps Revenue Cutter Service
Confederacy	Army Navy Marine Corps

Theaters

Major campaigns

Major battles

Involvement

States and
territories

Cities

Leaders

Confederate

Military	R. H. Anderson Beauregard Bragg Buchanan Cooper Early Ewell Forrest Gorgas Hill Hood Jackson A. S. Johnston J. E. Johnston Lee Longstreet Morgan Mosby Polk Price Semmes E. K. Smith Stuart Taylor Wheeler
Civilian	Benjamin Bocock Breckinridge Davis Hunter Mallory Memminger Seddon Stephens

Union

Military	Anderson Buell Burnside Butler Du Pont Farragut Foote Frémont Grant Halleck Hooker Hunt McClellan McDowell Meade Meigs Ord Pope D. D. Porter Rosecrans Scott Sheridan Sherman Thomas
Civilian	Adams Chase Ericsson Hamlin Lincoln Pinkerton Seward Stanton Stevens Wade Welles

Aftermath

Constitution

Reconstruction Amendments

Reconstruction

Post-
Reconstruction

Monuments
and memorials

Union	List Grand Army of the Republic memorials to Lincoln
Confederate	List artworks in Capitol memorials to Davis memorials to Lee Removal

Cemeteries

Veterans

Related topics

Military	Arms Campaign Medal Cavalry Confederate Home Guard Confederate railroads Confederate revolving cannon Field artillery Medal of Honor recipients Medicine Naval battles Official Records Partisan rangers POW camps Rations Signal Corps Turning point Union corps badges U.S. Balloon Corps U.S. Home Guard U.S. Military Railroad
Political	Committee on the Conduct of the War Confederate States presidential election of 1861 Confiscation Act of 1861 Confiscation Act of 1862 Copperheads Emancipation Proclamation Habeas Corpus Act of 1863 Hampton Roads Conference National Union Party Politicians killed Radical Republicans Trent Affair Union Leagues U.S. Presidential Election of 1864 War Democrats
Music	Battle Hymn of the Republic Dixie John Brown's Body A Lincoln Portrait Marching Through Georgia Maryland, My Maryland When Johnny Comes Marching Home Daar kom die Alibama
Other topics	Baltimore riot of 1861 Battlefield preservation Bibliography Confederate war finance Confederate States dollar Espionage Confederate Secret Service Great Revival of 1863 Juneteenth Naming the war Native Americans Catawba Cherokee Choctaw Seminole New York City Gold Hoax of 1864 New York City riots of 1863 Photographers Richmond riots of 1863 Gender issues Supreme Court cases Tokens U.S. Sanitary Commission Women soldiers
Related	List of films and television shows about the American Civil War