Walter Harriman (governor) - Civil War

Civil War

In 1862, Harriman was appointed colonel of the 11th New Hampshire, a newly raised three-years regiment of infantry. He led his regiment from Cincinnati, Ohio, across the rugged Cumberland Plateau of Kentucky and Tennessee to join Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside's army in Knoxville, Tennessee. Harriman had no horse and walked with his men. During this 20-day journey, Harriman and his regiment camped for several days on the Emory River in Tennessee near the future location of the city of Harriman. (The directors of the company that later founded the city there decided to name it for him after having a conversation with an elderly man who fondly remembered Colonel Harriman and recalled the colonel saying that there should be a town near his regiment's campsite.)

He interrupted his military service to run as a War Democrat in the 1863 gubernatorial campaign. He siphoned off enough regular Democratic votes to give the election to Republican candidate Joseph A. Gilmore. Harriman rejoined the 11th New Hampshire in time for the Battle of the Wilderness during the Overland Campaign. He was captured and sent south as a prisoner of war. He was exchanged in September 1864, and mustered out as a Brevet brigadier general in June 1865.

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