Jacob Fullenwider Harris

Jacob Fullenwider Harris was a Private in the 8th Kentucky Cavalry, under the command of Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan, C.S.A.  He was captured on July 20th, 1863 by the Union Army in Cheshire, Ohio, eleven days after the Confederate victory at Corydon, Indiana. He was taken to Camp Douglas in Chicago, Illinois as a prisoner of war, where he would spend the last fourteen months of his life.

Camp Douglas was said to be the worst of the P.O.W. camps in the north. By the end of the Civil War, 18,000 Confederate soldiers were incarcerated there in deplorable conditions. The U.S. Sanitary Commission described the barracks as being so bad that, “Nothing but fire can cleanse them.”

Just a month before his death, Jacob wrote the following letter to his wife, Amanda:

August, 1864
Chicago, Illinois
Camp Douglas

Dear Wife,

It is with pleasure that I address you a few lines. My health is improving as fast as can be expected. I will leave the hospital and return to the barracks today and you must not look for a letter from me until my regular writing day. I wrote to you my last writing day, but it appears you did not get it. Darling, you must not give yourself so much trouble about my health. When I write, I always tell you exactly how I am, but you seem to be uneasy and think I don’t give you my true situation. That I do not do. Darling, give my love to Ma and family. Tell them to write occasionally. Whenever you hear from father or Gamaliel (his brother) let me know. Goodbye. May heaven bless you.

Your devoted husband,
Jacob Harris
Company C. 8th Ky. Cav.

Harris died of diarrhea/dysentery at the age of twenty-six, on September 23rd, 1864. His body was sent back to Shelbyville, and he was interred at Grove Hill two years later. The full inscription on his headstone reads:

JACOB F. HARRIS

BORN
Dec. 13th, 1837
DIED
A prisoner of war
in Camp Douglas
Chicago, Illinois
Sept. 23rd, 1864

Crowned with glory’s wreath immortal,
By a Savior’s suffering bought
Thou hast entered through its portals
To the heaven by thee sought.