Civil War Union Brevet Brigadier General. he served in the Civil War first as Lieutenant Colonel of the 1st Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, with whom he fought in the Shenandoah Valley in July 1861. He was then commissioned Colonel and commander of the 11th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. He led the unit in a July 1862 heavy skirmish at Hills’ Plantation near the Cache River Bridge in Arkansas, where he sustained a severe wound, but remained on his horse to lead his men. Upon his recovery in late 1862 he returned to his unit, and was placed in command of his brigade, which was part of the small Army of the Southeastern Missouri in the District of St. Louis. He commanded the brigade in operations in and around St. Louis until March 1863, when it was assigned to the Federal Armies in Mississippi, becoming part of the XIX Corps. At the Battle and siege that culminated in the capitulation of Port Gibson, Mississippi in July 1863 he was prostrated by a sickness that facilitated his relief from brigade command, which was given to Brig. General Michael K. Lawler. However, he remained on the field with the 11th Wisconsin, whom he led in the ensuing battle and in a number of charges, despite his sickness (he was highly praised in General Lawler’s battle report). When General Lawler ascended to division command, Colonel Harris regained command of the brigade, being its senior Colonel. He led the unit in the late 1863 operations of the Corps in Louisiana and in the failed Red River Campaign. In October 1864 his brigade occupied Brashear City, Louisiana, and he commanded the forces in the city until late 1864, when hiscommand was assigned as the Third Brigade, First Division of the XVI Corps. He remained with the Corps until the end of the war, and his muster out of service. He was brevetted Brigadier General, US Volunteers on March 13, 1865 for “gallant and meritorious services”, his reward for nearly 3 full years of brigade command at the rank of Colonel, USV. After the war he became a prominent lawyer in Omaha, Nebraska, where he died in 1910.