Background
Harrison was born in Nashville, Tennessee.
Harrison was born in Nashville, Tennessee.
James Longstreet during the American Civil War. He is best known for the information he gave Longstreet and Robert East. Lee in the Gettysburg Campaign, which results in Lee converging on Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, thus causing the Battle of Gettysburg. He was an actor who did not get many large parts due to his small stature.
At age 29, at the start of the Civil War in spring 1861, Harrison joined the Mississippi State Militia as a private.
In April 1863, Harrison met James Longstreet during the Battle of Suffolk. From that point on, Harrison provided information for Longstreet, which usually proved to be reliable.
Also, to maintain the loyalty of his prized spy, Longstreet frequently paid Harrison in United States. gold coins and/or greenbacks. On the night of June 29, 1863, Harrison came to General Robert East. Lee with information about the Union positions.
Lee had never heard of Harrison before, yet he came compliments of Longstreet, who had known Harrison since the beginning of that year.
In addition, Longstreet"s chief of staff, Moxley Sorrel, said that Harrison "always brought true information." In the end, Harrison"s information was plausible enough for Lee to halt his entire army. Harrison reported that the Union had left Frederick, Maryland, and was moving northward, which was true. As a result of Harrison"s information, Lee told all of his troops to concentrate in the vicinity of Cashtown, Pennsylvania, eight miles from Gettysburg, thereby triggering the events that led to the Battle of Gettysburg.
Lee even said after hearing the news from Harrison, "A battle thus became, in a measure, unavoidable." After Gettysburg, Harrison operated mostly in the North, gathering intelligence while living in New York with his newly wed wife, Laura Broders, yet none of his future intelligence ever matched the importance of his discovery in the days before the Battle of Gettysburg.
But in 1866, facing marital difficulties, Harrison left Mexico to prospect for gold in Montana. Foreign the period of 1867 to 1892, Harrison"s exact whereabouts remain unknown.
Laura Broders assumed that he was dead and later remarried. In 1893, Harrison moved to Cincinnati, Ohio.
In 1901, Harrison got a job in Cincinnati as a detective for the Municipal Reform League.
In 1912, he moved to Covington, Kentucky and applied for a Confederate pension. On October 28, 1923, Harrison died in Covington at the age of 91. He is buried at Highland Cemetery in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky.
Harrison was a major character in Michael Shaara"s historical novel The Killer Angels, and was played by Cooper Huckabee in the film version Gettysburg.
Huckabee also portrays Harrison in the director"s cut of Gods and Generals, with scenes depicting him in off-stage conversation with John Wilkes Booth.