"Youth, pride in such a service, and the novel duties and scenes in which they were soon to act gave the "enchantment of distance" to a life filled with hardship, danger, and death."

Colonel William H. Noble

Introduction

Major Allen G. Brady

Sgt. Edwin O. Harrison

Lt. Hanford Hayes

Hubbell's in the 17th

Pvt. Timothy Donovan

Musician Henry Huss

Sgt. Isaac Crissy

Pvt. Francis H. Ferry

Pvt. George S. Ferry

Surgeon Robert Hubbard

Chaplain William K. Hall

Edwin Oliver Harrison was born on the East side of Lower Manhattan on Hamilton Street between Catherine and Market Streets and lived in Manhattan until his family moved to Stamford, CT about 1855. In 1850 he was 10 years old and lived with his parents, William and Rebecca, his brother William, and his sisters. He lived in Stamford, CT. during and after July 1860, appearing on the census of August 1860 there with his parents. He was married to Harriet A Ketcham on September 27, 1860 at the Norfolk Street Baptist Church at 136 Madison St. NYC, by the Pastor Thomas Armitage. His son Edwin Judson was born in Stamford on March 25, 1861. His wife Harriet was born in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, and later her family moved to Stamford. It is most likely that Oliver and Harriet met in Stamford. It is not known why they went to NYC to get married, unless Pastor Armitage was a favorite minister. The witness was Harriet's father, Sea Captain John Ketcham.

Edwin O enlisted in the Union Army (B. Co., 17th Reg. Connecticut Volunteers Infantry) in 1862 at Bridgeport, CT. His occupation at the time was a coal dealer. He returned to Stamford after the Civil War for two years, then moved to Brooklyn, NY, where he was in the wholesale cloth trade. He returned to Stamford about 1881, engaged in the grocery business. Harriet died in Stamford August 17, 1887 at the age of 43. She is buried in Woodland Cemetery in Stamford. Her parents, John and Eliza Ketcham are also buried there and many other relatives of the Ketcham family. Originally from Islip, Long Island, her father was a Sea Captain and his father, Oliver Ketcham, was an oysterman. Stamford is directly across Long Island Sound from Long Island.

About 1896, Edwin O. left Stamford and lived in Southold, Suffolk Co., New York. Southold is on Long Island Sound very near the Easternmost tip of the Island, quite close to Shelter Island. On November 12, 1896 he married a second wife, Mary E Overton in the M.E. Church, Southold, by the Rev. D. H. Howell. There he had a daughter, Henrietta L. Harrison, born April 28, 1898. He lived there until his death on January 9, 1921 at the age of 81, and is buried at Willow Hill, a small cemetery on Rt. 25 in Southold .

His Civil War record indicates his Company left Camp Aiken, Bridgeport, CT on November 3, 1862 for Baltimore. On November 3rd it was assigned to the 11th Corps (Army of the Potomac). General Franz Sigel commanded the Corps. They crossed the Potomac through Chantilly, Centreville, VA, and wintered in Brooks Station, near Fredericksburg, VA.. On April 27, 1863 they were called to Chancellorsville and General Oliver O. Howard commanded the 11th Corps. On May 2 the 12,000 men of the 11th Corps were positioned on the right side of the defenses in the Wilderness, at Chancellorsville. The left side of the flank was anchored to the Rappahannock River. General Robert E. Lee discovered the right flank "in the air" and sent Stonewall Jackson and 30,000 rebels to attack it. Stonewall marched undetected twelve miles in front of Fighting Joe Hooker's 70,000 Union Army of the Potomac. While Howard's men cooked supper, Stonewall Jackson attacked at 5:15, coming from the Wilderness, the unanchored right flank, and knocked down the 11th Corps like tenpins for two miles. Stonewall Jackson was accidentally shot by his own men and died eight days later. It was here that Edwin O was captured and taken prisoner.

Edwin O. was imprisoned in Richmond, VA. on May 9th, and later paroled at City Point, VA on May 14. A paroled prisoner of war was one released by the enemy under oath to not bear arms against the enemy again until formally exchanged. Exchanges were halted during May 1863 by the Union due to the South's refusal to treat blacks captured as prisoners of war and shot them.

Edwin O. reported at College Green Barracks, MD on May 16 and was sent to Washington DC on May 20th to serve out his parole.

For his failure to detect and attack Lee's smaller force at Chancellorsville and other timidity under pressure, Hooker was relieved as Commander of the Army of the Potomac and replaced by General George Gordon Meade on June 28, 1863. Howard, however, remained commander of the 11th Corps, and on July 1, 2 & 3, 1863, were positioned on Cemetery Hill at Gettysburg, PA. They were charged by Southern General Ewell's forces, but were not broken. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia retreated from Pennsylvania and Maryland, to below the Rappahannock River near Richmond. Edwin missed all this, being in Washington on parole.

The 11th Corps was transferred to the Department of the South and included in the 10th Corps, stationed at Folly Island, South Carolina on August 31, 1863 to Dec. 31, 1863. Edwin O returned from parole classification on October 18, 1863 and rejoined his unit at Folly Island.

The 10th Corps became part of the 24th Corps on February 23, 1864 and was stationed at Saint Augustine, Florida from February 28, 1864 to June 30th, 1865. There Co. B saw action at Volusia, Welaka, and Saunders Landing during May 1864. Many were captured at Volusia. During this period, Edwin O, on a later claim for a pension, stated he marched from Saint Augustine to Volusia, and then to Saunders Landing as a picket, suffering sunstroke and malarial poisoning.

He was mustered out of the Army on July 19, 1865 at Hilton Head Island, South Carolina as a 1st Sgt. He was paid a $100 bounty, which the Government paid $25 at enlistment and owed him $75 after he was mustered out plus $26.50 for clothing.

Various facts about him in 1885 are that he was 5'8 1/4", gray eyes, brown hair, 130 pounds, and had tattoos on his arms of a sailor & ship, and a star & anchor.