Harrow, William

Born: 1822-11-14 Winchester, Kentucky

Died: 1872-09-27 New Albany, Indiana

William Harrow was an attorney and Union Army officer. Harrow moved with his family from his native Kentucky to Lawrenceville, Illinois, where he attended local schools, read law, and earned admission to the Illinois bar. Harrow became an acquaintance of Abraham Lincoln and traveled with Lincoln on the Eighth Judicial Circuit. In 1850, Harrow was living and practicing law in Lawrence County, Illinois. In June 1857, he married Juliet James in Posey County, Indiana. Around 1859, Harrow and his wife moved to Vincennes, Indiana, where he opened a law practice. In 1860, he was practicing law and owned real property valued at $4,000. Harrow would later move to Mount Vernon, Indiana, his wife's hometown, where he was living and practicing law upon the commencement of the Civil War. In April 1861, Governor Oliver P. Morton appointed Harrow captain of the "Knox County Invincibles," militia company that was eventually folded into the Fourteenth Indiana Infantry Regiment. In June, Harrow received promotion to major, and his regiment saw its first action in West Virginia. The War Department subsequently promoted him to lieutenant colonel and colonel in February and April 1862, respectively. In July 1862, Harrow resigned his commission, but returned to the Fourteenth Indiana in August, leading the regiment at the Battle of Antietam, where it lost half of its strength. In November 1862, he received promotion to brigadier general, taking command of a brigade in the II Corps of the Army of the Potomac. He led his brigade and, after the division commander was wounded, a division at the Battle of Gettysburg. Harrow resigned his commission again in August 1863, but President Lincoln revoked his resignation in October. The War Department transferred Harrow to the Western Theater, where he assumed command of the Fourth Division of the XV Corps of the Army of the Tennessee. Harrow commanded the Fourth Division from February to September 1864, when the War Department broke up his division and transferred the regiments to other divisions and brigades. He remained without a command or assignment until his resignation in April 1865. Harrow returned to Mount Vernon, where he resumed his law practice and involved himself in local politics. He became a member of the Republican Party, identifying with the Radical Republicans during Reconstruction.

Ezra J. Warner, Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1964), 210-11; John H. Eicher and David J. Eicher, Civil War High Commands (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001), 284; Indiana Marriages (Salt Lake City, UT: Family Search, 2013); U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Lawrence County, IL, 70; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Vincennes, Knox County, IN, 62; Gravestone, Bellefontaine Cemetery, Mount Vernon, IN.