PUTNAM HARRISONS AFTER THE CIVIL WAR – 1865 TO 1900

RECONSTRUCTION AND RELOCATION – GOODBYE TO PUTNAM, HELLO MACON

History shows little mercy for the confederate soldier. Nor for the emotional scars and economic disasters the mothers, wives, children and families suffered during and after the conflict. The Harrison family story involves prosperity as small plantation owners, and slave owners, prior to emancipation of slaves. Economic disaster and relocations occurred for many of our ancestors after the US Civil War.

Here is a political summary from of Reconstruction after the Civil War (© 1999, 2000, 2001 for NEGenWeb Project, T&C Miller). According to this article: “What the War Settled. The war settled three things:
   1. It “extinguished secession” as completely as water extinguishes a flame of fire. Henceforth it was understood that the Union could not be broken. On this point the Constitution received a final and unmistakable interpretation. In the words of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (1868), the American Republic is “an indestructible Union composed of indestructible states.” The war established the supremacy of the national government beyond all question; but more than this, it made every heart feel that we are one nation and have a common destiny. It fixed in the minds of the people the great thought expressed by Daniel Webster: “Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable” (§ 268).
   2. The war made the negro free — that was an advantage to every one, white or black, North or South; for free labor only is intelligent and profitable.
   3. The manner in which the result was accepted on both sides was itself a benefit. General Grant showed a magnanimity that has had no parallel. General Lee had fought with all his might; he was in the wrong; he applied to the government for a pardon, as an example to his men. He said: “Remember that we are one country now. Do not bring up your children in hostility to the government of the United States. Bring them up to be Americans.”

My great-grandfather Nathaniel C. Harrison, Sr. (1830 – 1864) died 9 September 1864 from infection of the wounds causing the amputation of his right leg. This battle casualty occurred on 5 May 1864 at the Battle of the Wilderness west of Fredericksburg, Virginia.

Field hospitals and links to Nat’s hospital records.

The path of William T. Sherman’s Fall 1864 march through Central Georgia to Savannah went along the Oconee River through the Harrison’s land and home place. These homesteads were pillaged, their goods, food and supplies taken to supply Sherman’s troops.

The arrowhead on Williams troops’ path, along the Oconee River north of Milledgeville, is where our ancestors lived.