William Henry Harman was born in Waynesboro, Virginia on February 17, 1828.[1][2][3] His parents were Lewis and Sally (Garber) Harman.[1] His maternal grandfather, John Cunningham, has been a member of Staunton's Committee of Safety during the American Revolutionary War, as well as captain of a cavalry company in the Virginia militia.[4] William received a private education suitable to his class. He had elder brothers Michael Garber Harman (1823–1877) and John A. Harman (1824–1874), as well as younger brothers Asher Waterman Harman (1830–1895) and Thomas Lewis Harman (1831–1861). Michael Garber Harman ran a stage line with the help of their brother Asher Waterman Harmon, as well as a hotel in Staunton with William H. Garber.[3] By 1860, Michael Harman owned 41 slaves, three of them leased out to others.[5] His brothers would likewise fight in the Confederate States Army, and the youngest, T.L. Harman, a Lieutenant in the Staunton Artillery, died in September 1861 of typhoid fever in Prince William County, Virginia.
William H. Harman served as a second lieutenant in the 1st Virginia Infantry Regiment during the Mexican–American War.[1][2][3] After the war, he studied law and became a lawyer at Staunton, Virginia.[1][2] He was commonwealth's attorney for Augusta County, Virginia from 1851 until the beginning of the Civil War.[1][3]
This Harman married the former Margaret Singleton Garver.[6] They had eight children: Kenton, Fannie, Arthur C., Albert Garver, Ellen, Augusta, Louis and Edward Valentine.[6]
Confederate States Army officer
Governor John Letcher appointed William Henry Harman brigadier general of the 13th Brigade of Virginia militia on April 10, 1861.[1][2][3] After the battle of Fort Sumter April 12–13, 1861, ex-governor Henry A. Wise approached Captain John D. Imboden of the Staunton Artillery, Virginia militia, then in Richmond, and proposed a preemptive strike directed at the United States Armory and Arsenal at Harpers Ferry. Wise and Imboden met with a number of militia officers at the Exchange Hotel, among them Turner Ashby and Harman. When Governor Letcher refused to give his official approval of the action, the men decided to act on their own. Harman was sent to Staunton to raise volunteers to follow Imboden's battery to Harpers Ferry.[7] When the Virginia convention passed the secession ordinance, Governor Letcher gave his blessing to the action, and Harpers Ferry was taken on April 18.[8]
On May 7, 1861, the 5th Virginia Infantry Regiment, with Kenton Harper as colonel and William Henry Harman as lieutenant colonel was formed at Harper's Ferry.[1][2][3] The regiment was assigned to Stonewall Jackson's brigade; his elder brother, Col. Michael Garber Harman, was quartermaster, succeeded by their brother Major John A. Harman.[1] The regiment fought at the First Battle of Bull Run where Jackson received his famous nickname on July 21, 1861.[1] Harman succeeded Harper as colonel of the regiment on September 11, 1861 when Harper resigned.[1][2][3] Harman led the regiment at the First Battle of Kernstown on March 23, 1862.[1] However, his men did not re-elect him as colonel when the Confederate Army reorganized in April 1862.[1][3]
William Henry Harman was killed in action while attempting to rally his troops during the Confederate rout at the Battle of Waynesboro, Virginia, the town where he was born, on March 2, 1865.[1][6] He is buried in Thornrose Cemetery, Staunton, Virginia.[1][2] At the time of his death, Harman was serving his second term as Grand Master Mason of Virginia.[6] His brothers would rebuild and expand the railroads connecting at Staunton and son Arthur C. Harman would follow his father's political career and serve in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly.
^ abcdefghijAllardice, Bruce S. Confederate Colonels: A Biographical Register. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2008. ISBN978-0-8262-1809-4. p. 182.
^Sons of the American Revolution application of John Alexander Harman (A.W. Harman's son) dated 1865 available online
^1860 U.S. Federal Census, slave schedule for Staunton, Augusta County, Virginia pp. 10–11 of 12
^Eicher, 2001, p. 281 shows Harman as a colonel in the Provisional Army of Virginia from April 27, 1861 until December 1861. The Provisional Army of Virginia was formally transferred to the Confederate States Army on June 8, 1861. Some state militia units remained under state control. Eicher, David J.The Longest Night: A Military History of the Civil War. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001. ISBN0-684-84944-5. p. 62. However, Harman became lieutenant colonel of the 5th Virginia Infantry Regiment, a Confederate States Army unit, on May 7, 1861. Kenton Harper was the colonel of the regiment. Allardice, 1995, p. 116.
^Allardice, 1995, p. 116 states that Harman was erroneously identified in Hotchkiss, Jedidiah, "Make me a map of the Valley: the Civil War journal of Stonewall Jackson's topographer", Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 1973, ISBN978-0-87074-137-1, as leader of the 52nd Virginia Infantry Regiment at the Battle of McDowell on May 8, 1862, but the colonel of that regiment actually was his brother, Colonel Michael Harman.
^Allardice, 1995, p. 116 states that Harman commanded a brigade of reservists but he changed this to a regiment in Allardice, 2008, p. 182.
References
Allardice, Bruce S. Confederate Colonels: A Biographical Register. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2008. ISBN978-0-8262-1809-4.