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Leonard Harris was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on October 11, 1826. He came from a poor background, with his mother, Eliza Harris, working as a wash woman. His mother had to make shoes herself for Leonard out of cloth in the winter and let him go barefoot during the warmer weather. His father was a shoemaker.i. His only education came from the local schools. Despite his background, he made himself a self-educated man by studying on his own throughout his life. In his early life, he took an interest in politics and was a member of the Republican Party. In 1856, he was a candidate for sheriff in Hamilton County, Ohio. He was also interested in military affairs.
When the Civil War broke out, he was commissioned captain of Company A, 2nd Ohio Infantry and was mustered into service on April 17, 1861, two days after President Abraham Lincoln’s call for seventy-five thousand volunteers. His regiment was one of the first to march to Washington, D. C., and was in General Robert Schenck’s brigade at the Battle of Bull Run, in July of 1861. When the regiment had fulfilled their three-month enlistment, the regiment was reorganized for a three-year enlistment and Leonard Harris was commissioned colonel of the new 2nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Under his command, the regiment was ordered to Kentucky and was placed on duty under General Ormsby Mitchell and General William Nelson. Colonel Harris’ first battle under his command was Ivy Mountain, Kentucky on November 8, 1861, where General William Nelson ordered Harris to lead his men up the northern ridge of the mountain and deployed them along the face of the mountain and along the crest and charged. Due to the steepness of the mountain, Harris had a difficult time ascending the mountain, but within an hour and twenty minutes, the Confederates fled, leaving a numbered of killed, wounded, and Confederate prisoners.
According to Major George Vandergrift, who was Harris’s acting assistant adjutant general, remembered Harris as a strict disciplinarian. In November 1861, in Breathitt County, Kentucky, Harris had 146 of his men bucked and gagged one night, and many of them were knocked down with the butt ends of muskets to make them come to time. The reason for the punishment was because during the night a huge uproar arose from camp and Colonel Harris sent Major Vandergrift to see what the commotion was about. Vandergrift discovered the men of the 2nd Ohio had obtained several barrels of apple jack and almost the entire regiment was drunk and there was fierce fighting in every camp street. Vandergrift immediately went to Colonel Harris with the news. Harris ordered the long roll to be sounded and began to stop the drunken riot. Harris believed in “perfect discipline and obedience to superiors.” ii.
After the battle of Ivy Mountain, Harris and the 2nd Ohio was ordered to Nashville, Tennessee and General Don Carlos Buell ordered him to Fort McCook, which was located near the confluence of the Tennessee River and Battle Creek northeast of the town of South Pittsburg, Tennessee. The Fort was named after Union General Alexander McCook. On August 21, Harris arrived at Fort McCook with the 2nd Ohio and 33rd Ohio Infantry, Edgarton’s Ohio Battery, and 110 men of the Fourth Ohio Cavalry. On the same day, Harris received an order to send one regiment and the battery to General Alexander McCook, which left Harris only with the 33rd Ohio and the cavalry to hold the fort. On August 26, all of the Union stores from Bridgeport were moved and Harris ordered Major Lock to Fort McCook. The next day, on August 27, Harris received reports that the Confederates were crossing at Bridgeport. Major Pugh, with his cavalry, had engaged the Confederates at Bridgeport when “the enemy put a battery of four guns, one a siege gun, in position on the opposite of the bank of the Tennessee River, about eight hundred yards from the fort. They opened on the fort and camp and shelled it without intermission, except to allow their guns to cool, for twelve hours.”iii. On August 27, 1862, Confederate General Samuel Maxey forced the Federals to abandon the fort. When the Federals moved out of the fort, many items were abandoned by the Federals in their retreat, as reported by Maxey: "some $30,000 worth of valuable property, embracing some commissary stores, ordnance stores, quartermaster's stores, clothing, all his tents, 32 horses and 4 mules, a few wagons and ambulances, and some few medicines, and a splendid case of surgical instruments, besides some sutler's stores, a number of officers' trunks, many of the post commander's papers, and some very valuable maps." From the renamed Fort Maxey, Confederate forces moved North through the valley to invade Kentucky.
Fort McCook had no real cannons to defend the fort. The ramparts were mounted with “Quaker guns” to conceal from the Confederate forces the withdrawal of the Union forces. Buell never expected to see Harris again after the fort was abandoned, and when Harris turned up at Buell’s headquarters, he looked up at Harris and said grimly: “You here? I never expected to see you again.” Harris tersely replied: “I got here.” One of Harris’s aides, either Lieutenant F. J. Fitzwilliam or Lieutenant H. E. Spencer, stated that a half dozen officers were sitting in a house in Fort McCook before the attack and were playing poker. Confederate forces were all around them, but they had not attacked, because of the sight of the Quaker guns on the ramparts. While the officers were playing a card game the Confederates decided to try and take the guns on the ramparts and just when a deal for a fat jackpot had been finished, a twenty-pound shell came crashing through the roof of the house and into the room where the officers, including Harris were playing. The shell put out the lights and everyone ran for the door. Harris’s aide captured the jackpot and thrust the money into his pocket. Confusion among the soldiers took place outside while the Confederate artillery rounds landed in the fort. Colonel Harris got a handful of men safely out and after a ten-days hard march, during which none of the men took off their clothes for a bath. Buell’s army joined Harris. The first thing the aide did was hunt for a bath. He and a captain who was in the poker game found one. As the captain unbuttoned his coat for the first time in ten-days he thrust his hand into his inside pocket and pulled out five cards. He looked at them in amusement and then remembered that he must have thrust them into the pocket when the Confederate shell broke up the poker game. The captain said: “you’ll have to give me the pot” as he “skinned” his hand and said “for here’s an ace full. Harris’s aide turned over the jackpot to the captain. Harris aide said: “I don’t believe a jackpot was ever won under such circumstances before or since.”iv.
In the advance on Nashville, Tennessee, Colonel Harris was in General Ormsby Mitchell’s division, and he marched to Huntsville, Alabama, where his regiment was assigned to General Joshua Sill’s brigade and placed on duty as provost guard. During the expedition against Stevenson, Alabama, Harris took an active part and saved the bridge at Bridgeport.
When Confederate General Braxton Bragg, commander of the Army of the Mississippi, invaded Kentucky, the Union army, under General Don Carlos Buell, had to abandon the area and Colonel Harris was placed in command of the fort at Bridgeport and was the last to leave, after having withstood a severe assault. Along with the main army under General Buell, Harris marched into Kentucky. He was promoted to command the Ninth Brigade, under the division of General Lovell Rousseau. Harris’s command consisted of the 38th Indiana Infantry, under Colonel Benjamin Scribner, the 2nd Ohio Infantry, under Lt. Colonel John Kell, the 33rd Ohio Infantry, under Lt. Colonel Oscar Moore, the 94th Ohio Infantry, under Colonel Joseph Frizell, the 10th Wisconsin Infantry, under Colonel Alfred Chapin, and the 5th Battery, Indiana Light Artillery, under the command of Captain Peter Simonson. On October 8, at Perryville, Kentucky, Harris was on the right center and left of the 17th Brigade, under Colonel William Lyle. Captain Peter Simonson’s 5th Indiana Battery was placed on Harris’s right where Captain Cyrus Loomis’s Michigan battery was already engaged, and the 10th Wisconsin Regiment was ordered to support the battery. The 33rd Ohio was on the left, with skirmishers well advanced to the front in the woods, the 2nd Ohio and 38th Indiana in center, with the 94th Ohio in reserve. v.
The Confederate fire intensified on the right and General Alexander McCook, commander of the 1st Corps, ordered the 38th Indiana to their support. Harris placed them in the rear of Simonson’s battery, due to Loomis battery withdrawing. The fighting erupted upon the entire Union line. Captain Simonson was fired upon by two Confederate batteries, and a heavy Confederate infantry forced advanced on him. Simonson lost sixteen horses and fourteen men killed and wounded. Major Cotter, chief of the Union artillery, retired Simonson. Harris immediately ordered the 38th Indiana to take a position where the battery had been located. The Rebels advanced under Confederate Thomas Jones’s brigade. The 38th Indiana and the 10th Wisconsin placed a well-directed volley into the advancing Confederates and drove them behind the crest of a hill, but the Confederates soon advanced again, but were driven back. The Confederates advanced for a third time, when they took a position behind the crest of the hill. Jones suffered fifty percent casualties and fell back, and no longer engaged. General John Brown’s Confederate brigade advanced.
Firing became heavy and Harris called up the 94th Ohio, under Colonel Frizell, but was informed that they had been ordered by Major General McCook to support a section of artillery which General William Terrill’s brigade was engaged. The positions of the regiments had all been changed. The 2nd Ohio, under Colonel Oscar Moore, were “fiercely” engaged with the Rebels, who were making a desperate effort to crack the Union center. Moore was wounded and taken prisoner.
Harris decided that he had to hold his position, even if he did not have support, until the right was successful or compelled to retire. If he had been driven back, the 17th Brigade would have been cut off from the main body and in his judgement “irretrievably” lost. During his part of the engagement, Colonel Benjamin Scribner, of the 38th Indiana Infantry, informed Harris that the regiment on the right was not firing. Harris sent his aide Lieutenant Spencer to find out why and what regiment had ceased firing. On his return, Spencer told Harris that the 10th Ohio had stopped firing, and that General Lytle said that they were reserving their fire. Half an hour afterward Harris sent a message to General Lytle stating that he had been forced to withdraw the 10th Wisconsin, because they had run out of ammunition. The withdrawal of the 10th Wisconsin left a gap of two hundred yards on the left of the 38th Indiana. In the meantime, the 15th Kentucky, under Colonel Curran Pope, and the 3rd Ohio, under General John Beatty, which were on the extreme right were compelled to fall back under the assaults of Confederate General Simeon Bucker and parts of General Patton Anderson’s divisions. Colonel Scribner informed Harris that they had run out of ammunition and were using the ammunition from the dead and wounded. Harris’ aide that he had sent for ammunition and support informed Harris that no support could be found and that the ammunition was far to the rear. The only aide Harris had with him had his horse shot out from under him. Harris rode over to General Lytle and informed him of the current situation. When he returned, he found the 38th Indiana had run out of all ammunition. Scribner directed his men to fix bayonets and hold their position. Without any ammunition, under heavy Confederate fire in the front and enfilading fire from Rebel artillery, they held their position for twenty-five minutes. Harris realized the hopelessness of the situation and gave the order to retreat, which was done in “perfect order.” Harris had not fallen back more than one hundred yards when a tremendous fire from a column of infantry, which had turned the right flank of the 10th Ohio, was poured in on their left and his retiring column.
Harris retired to the woods in the rear of a cornfield, where he met the 33rd Ohio, who had just replenished their ammunition. Harris directed Major Lock, who was commanding, to place them in position parallel to the fence separating the woods from the cornfield and at right angles to the road and immediately opposite the Russell House, directing them to hold the Confederates in check until the 38th Indiana and 33rd Ohio were supplied with cartridges. The 10th Ohio came up at the very moment, under the command of Colonel Burke, and took a position on the left of the 33rd Ohio. At the same time, the 2nd Ohio was engaged with the Rebels on the left of the Union left, and stubbornly falling back, with their ammunition beginning to run out. Harris met Colonel George Webster rallying a regiment of his brigade which was in utter confusion. Harris assisted him, and as soon as ordered was restored asked Webster to form in the rear of the 33rd and 10th Ohio regiments, so that the balance of his command could resupply. Webster agreed. At this very moment, Harris again met General Rousseau riding among the men and encouraging the soldiers.
As soon as the 2nd Ohio and the 33rd Ohio, the 38th Indiana, and the 10th Wisconsin were resupplied with ammunition Harris formed them into line to cover the retiring 33rd and 10th Ohio and a portion of Webster’s command who were engaged, and Harris directed the 10th Wisconsin to move obliquely to the right, to support a battery engaged to the right of the Mackville Road. From this area, Harris was ordered by Rousseau to fall back one hundred yards, when he met and attached to his command the 50th Ohio and camped for the night. Harris’s brigade went into action with 2,250 men. After the battle, he lost four officers killed, ten officers wounded, 124 men killed, 412 wounded, and 43 men missing.
Several weeks after the battle of Perryville, on November 6, 1862, the citizens of Cincinnati, Ohio raised one hundred and thirty dollars for a regimental flag for the 2nd Ohio Infantry. The flag was made by Hamlin’s on Fourth Street in Cincinnati. After the battle, the flag was in poor condition. The original flag was presented to one of the companies hailing from an interior town in Ohio. The Cincinnati Enquirer felt that the City Council should also help with the payment of the flag, since Second Ohio, under Colonel Harris, deserved a tribute to Harris’s good service. vi.
Harris’s actions at the battle of Perryville was mentioned in all the Union reports with praise and he was recommended for promotion by General Buell, who urged that he had “earned it by qualifications and services.” Unfortunately, the battle left Harris seriously impaired in his health and he was no longer fit for field service. During his leave of absence, he was thrown from his carriage and his hip bone was broken. Unable to re-enter the army into active service, he resigned on December 4, 1862.
He returned to Cincinnati and the citizens of the city elected his mayor. He was given a house. While he was mayor, he drafted a law in which the hundred day men who guarded the lines of communication during the critical summer of 1864, were called out, and Harris was commissioned colonel of the 137th Ohio, which served at Fort McHenry and other places in Maryland. In 1865, he was re-elected mayor. In 1866, he was appointed collector of revenue by President Andrew Johnson. He held the office for four years. In 1879, he was a candidate for mayor, but was defeated. He was elected by Congress as one of the managers of the Soldier’s Home and was vice president of the board at the time of his death. Harris stated: “For awhile not many the numerous demands of the veterans on my time were so irksome that I thought about resigning; but the more I reflected upon it the more I conceived it to be my duty to look after their interests, and now that duty has become one of my greatest delights.”
Harris was one of the founders of Cuvier Club. He was also a trustee of the Cincinnati Hospital and responsible for erection of the building. He was also an early member of the Society of the Army of the Cumberland as well as a member of the Loyal Legion. Harris died in Cincinnati, Ohio on July 5, 1890 at the age of sixty three. The funeral was held at his house on West Seventh Street in Cincinnati and he was buried at Spring Grove Cemetery. Governor J. B. Thomas, of the Soldier’s Home made the arrangements. Interestingly on August 29, 1907, Harris’s wife Mrs. Catherin Harris died and left nearly a half million dollars to a half-brother in Topeka, Kansas. The will was contested by her nephews. Mrs. Harris invested in non-taxable stocks and in securities.vii.
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