Background
HARRIS, Thomas Alexander was born in 1826 in Warren County, Virginia, United States, United States.
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Thomas Alexander HARRIS
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Education
Private school, United States Military Academy.
Career
Was orphaned at the age of nine. He fought in the Mormon and Iowa War at the age of twelve. He attended the U.S. Military Academy from 1843 to 1845 but did not take a degree.
He was twice married, his first wife being Imogene Porter. The name of his second wife is unknown. Sometime during the late 1840s, he moved to Missouri where he practiced law in Hannibal.
Harris edited the Missouri Courier in Hannibal during the politically divisive 1850s. Although he was a unionist Democrat who supported John Bell for the presidency in 1860, he was at one time a member of the American party and served as its national secretary. During the Mexican War, he participated in the Lopez expedition to Cuba.
He was a member of the Missouri legislature, and in 1856, he ran for secretary of state on the anti-Benton ticket. He joined the army when the war began. During the Civil War, he held the ranks of brigadier general in the Missouri State Guard and major in the Confederate Army.
After participating in the battle of Lexington in September 1861, he was named to the provisional Confederate Congress, a position which he accepted as a means of improving living conditions among Confederate troops. Elected to the Confederate House in 1862, Harris served until February 1864. He was anti-administration and served on the Military Affairs and Conference Committees.
While in the House, he opposed all tax bills and all “unnecessary and irregular warfare. ” He tried unsuccessfully to leave the Confederacy before the end of the war but was captured in May 1865 while trying to pass through the lines in Florida. He was soon paroled. After the war he was broke.
He invested in mining lands in Missouri, went to Texas in 1870, and worked on a New Orleans newspaper before settling in Louisville, Kentucky. He was a member of the Life Insurance Association of America and served as assistant secretary of state for Kentucky in 1880.
Religion
"Peculiar institution" of slavery was not only expedient but also ordained by God and upheld in Holy Scripture.
Politics
Stands for preserving slavery, states' rights, and political liberty for whites. Every individual state is sovereign, even to the point of secession.
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Born
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Died
April 9, 1895 (aged 69) -
Nationality
United States