Military Figure. His is recognized as an American Civil War Confederate Army Officer. Born in Waynesboro, Virginia, he served during the Mexican War as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 1st Virginia Volunteer Infantry, a unit whose major was future Confederate General Jubal Early. After the war, he rose to prominence as a Augusta County lawyer. In April of 1861, two days before South Carolina forces fired upon Fort Sumter, he was appointed as a Brigadier General of Virginia Militia. Assigned a brigade of almost 1,000 men, he helped take and hold Harpers Ferry, Virginia, before regular Confederate troops under Stonewall Jackson arrived to occupy it. In May of 1861 he became Lieutenant Colonel of the 5th Virginia Infantry, which became part of the famous "Stonewall Brigade". The unit fought in the July of 1861 First Battle of Bull Run under Colonel Kenton Harper, who resigned in September of 1861. William H. Harman was promoted to Colonel of the regiment, which he led in the March of 1862 Battle of Kernstown. When General Jackson's Army of the Valley was re-organized in April of 1862, he was left without a command as another officer had been elected as the 5th Virginia's Colonel. During the rest of the 1862 Campaign in the Shenandoah Valley, he served as an aide-de-camp to Brigadier General Edward Johnson. As his health slowly wrecked by field service, he was detailed in 1864 to command reservists in the Valley, far from the active theatres at the time. As the Confederacy's fortunes faded, the war came back to the valley. Colonel Harman led a force of reservists at the June of 1864 Battle of Piedmont, where his men were ineffective in stopping Union forces. Waging a losing defensive battle with his scratch force throughout 1865, he was killed at the March 2, 1865 Battle of Waynesboro. He married the former Margaret Singleton Garver and the couple had eight children.