Benjamin Harrison - Wikipedia

Thank you my friend Maj Marty Hogan for making us aware that August 20 is the anniversary of the birth of Union Civil War Colonel [permanent rank with brevet Brigadier rank], American politician and lawyer Benjamin Harrison who served as the 23rd President of the United States from 1889 to 1893.
Images: 1864-05-20 Benjamin Harrison Come on 'Boys' at Battle of Resaca, Georgia; 1864-05-20 Battle of Resaca, Georgia 1864 by Kurz and Allison; 1889 Benjamin Harrison Official White House Portrait; 1864-05-20 Battle of Resaca assault by Blakeslee.

1. Background from whitehousehistory.org/the-life-and-presidency-of-benjamin-harrison
"The Life and Presidency of Benjamin Harrison
Born in North Bend, Ohio, on August 20, 1833, Benjamin Harrison was the grandson of "Old Tippecanoe," William Henry Harrison, ninth president of the United States. The second of ten children to John and Elizabeth Harrison, Benjamin grew up at The Point, his grandfather's six hundred acre farm near North Bend. His early education included attendance at a nearby one-room schoolhouse. At age 14 Harrison attended Farmer's College in Cincinnati and transferred to Miami University in Oxford, Ohio as a junior. In 1852, he graduated with honors and took up the study of law at a Cincinnati law firm gaining admission to the bar two years later.
While at Farmer's College Harrison met and fell in love with Caroline "Carrie" Lavinia Scott, the daughter of John Scott, a science and math professor and ordained Presbyterian minister. Together they had two children, Russell and Mary.
The couple moved to Indianapolis, where Harrison practiced law and established a successful partnership with William Wallace. He became active in the Republican Party and ran successfully for city attorney of Indianapolis in 1857. During the Civil War, Harrison served as a colonel of the 70th Indiana Volunteer Infantry. His unit guarded railroads in Kentucky and did not see significant action until the battle of Resaca in northwest Georgia in 1864. His troops fought well and Harrison received a brevet promotion to brigadier general.
After the war Harrison returned to Indianapolis to his legal practice, specializing in criminal and divorce cases. His legal skill, military service, and speeches on behalf of Republican causes made him famous throughout Indiana. In 1881, the Republican controlled legislature named him to serve in the United States Senate (popular election of Senators did not begin until 1913).
Nominated for president at the 1888 Republican Convention, Benjamin Harrison conducted one of the first "front porch" campaigns, delivering short speeches to delegations that visited him. The key issue of the election was the tariff, which Harrison pledged to raise if elected. Harrison lost the popular vote, but with the help of a narrow victory in New York won the Electoral College with 233 to 168 votes.

THE HARRISON PRESIDENCY (1889-1893)
Harrison's administration began in a momentous year. The great Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889 opened Indian Territory, while the Johnstown Flood claimed 2,209 lives in Pennsylvania. Loyal to veterans, Harrison signed the Dependent and Disability Pensions Act in 1890, expanding aid to disabled service men, their widows and dependents. He also signed the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, which attempted to protect trade and commerce against "unlawful restraints and monopolies." Harrison lobbied successfully for the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, requiring the government to use silver in its coinage. The redemption of silver dangerously depleted U.S. reserves during the ensuing Panic of 1893 forcing the bill to be repealed.

An avowed protectionist, Harrison favored the passage of the McKinley Tariff of 1890, a bill protecting American corporations with high import duties that resulted in higher consumer prices and lower wages. He approved substantial appropriations bills for internal improvements, expansion of the Navy, conservation of forests resources, and promoted an aggressive foreign policy. He promoted the first Pan American Congress in Washington in 1889, negotiated an American protectorate over the Samoan Islands, and submitted to the Senate a treaty to annex Hawaii. Harrison appointed Frederick Douglass as minister to Haiti and endorsed bills to prevent southern states from denying voting rights to African Americans.

Harrison lost his bid for reelection to Grover Cleveland in 1892. Middle class voters angered by the unpopular McKinley tariff voted Democrat and farmers in the west and south formed a new third party, the Populists, drawing more than a million votes. The Republican Party was lukewarm to his candidacy and any enthusiasm Harrison had for his campaign faded during the fall of 1892 when Mrs. Harrison died in the White House of tuberculosis on October 25. Leaving office a widower, Harrison returned to Indianapolis and eventually married Carrie Harrison's 37-year old former secretary and niece, Mary Scott Dimmick. A dignified elder statesman in retirement, Harrison died in 1901.

"A HOMELIKE ADMINISTRATION"
In 1891, Irwin H. Hoover a youthful employee of the Edison Company was selected to wire the White House with electricity. "Ike" as he was nicknamed, remained on the staff for 42 years. Hoover described the Harrison White House as a "homelike administration" referring to the Harrison's tight knit family and "Hoosier ideas of simplicity." The family routine was like clockwork: an eight o'clock breakfast, a one o'clock lunch, and an early dinner. The president usually worked in the morning and part of the afternoon at his desk or consulted with cabinet members. In good weather Harrison would slip out for strolls or solitary buggy rides over the countryside.

Accommodations were tight in the Harrison White House. Six adults and three children shared the second floor family quarters, where the president and Mrs. Harrison occupied the traditional bedchamber on the southwest corner. Their daughter Mary and her husband James Robert McKee had the bedroom on the northwest corner next to a dressing room converted into nursery for their children Mary and Benjamin McKee who often played on the White House lawn with family pets, including their famous goat, His Whiskers. The press took a special shine to Harrison's two-year old grandson Ben calling him "Baby McKee." Son Russell Harrison, his wife Mary, and daughter Marthena were regular visitors at the White House. The extended family circle also included the Reverend John Scott, age 90, and niece Mary Dimmick.

Mrs. Harrison restricted public visitors to the Entrance Hall and East Room hoping to keep the first floor staterooms private for family use. To ease the overcrowding she began working out a major enlargement of the White House to honor the 100th anniversary of George Washington's inauguration as president of the United States. During much of the nineteenth century the executive offices occupied the east half of the second floor leaving only the west side and central hall as private family space. With the aid of engineer Frederick Owen, the first lady envisioned a magnificent quadrangle complex. Additions included a "Public Art Wing" to the east and an official business wing to the west connected to the original White House by semicircular colonnades. A low, long range of conservatories closed off the south edge of a quadrangle.

Mrs. Harrison's plan foundered in the Congress. Speaker Thomas B. Reed of Maine claimed to have been personally offended by the president passing over his candidate for collector at Portland, Maine. His revenge prevented the bill authorizing the White House expansion to come to the floor for a vote. For the next decade, the subject of a White House expansion interested both presidents and their building commissioners, finally culminating in Congressional approval of the 1902 Theodore Roosevelt restoration that converted the house to modern living. Meanwhile, with the promise of a new house gone, Mrs. Harrison succeeded in making improvements-installing private bathrooms, a new kitchen, electric lights and call bells, and updating all the rooms with fresco and fresh paint.

CHRISTMAS IN THE HARRISON WHITE HOUSE
As chilly as President Harrison may have appeared to people who did not know him up close, friends and associates found him warm and jolly. The diminutive chief executive doted on his grandchildren and went great lengths to amuse them. To the delight of the children, he introduced the first recorded Christmas tree to the White House, on their first Christmas there in 1889. He conferred with the White House gardener Henry Pfister, who, with the "bouquet makers" on his staff, decorated the upstairs family library with ropes of holly and "prince's feather" ferns, accented with springs of mistletoe. Dominating the center of the room was what one observer described as "the most beautiful and perfect tree that could be found in all the country."

Executive clerk William H. Crook who had known the house intimately since Lincoln's time, recalled his first sight of the Harrison tree on Christmas morning: "From the topmost point to the floor it was laden with decorations, with toys innumerable for the children and gifts for the older ones." And Mrs. Harrison had made sure each member of her husband's staff was remembered with a personal token. All of the domestic employees were called in for gifts from under the tree. Of the men, those who were married received a turkey, while single men were given fine gloves; the assumption being that the first would eat at home, while the second would dress up and eat out.

Christmas stands out in White House memory as s special time for the Harrisons. In the holiday celebration, as with many of their other activities, plans and events, Benjamin and Carrie Harrison dramatized the President's House as a family home. And this, for the other roles the White House may play, is the one that touches most powerfully the affections of all Americans.

FURTHER READING:
Benjamin Harrison Papers, Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress.
Crook, William H. Memories of the White House, 1911.
Hoover, Irwin H. 42 Years in the White House, 1934.
Monkman, Betty C. The White House: Its Historic Furnishings and Families, 2000.
Seale, William. The President's House: A History, 2008.
Seale, William. The White House: The History of an American Idea, 2002.
Socolofsky, Homer E. and Allen B. Spetlet. The Presidency of Benjamin Harrison, Lawrence, Kans., 1987.

HISTORIC SITES
Benjamin Harrison Home. 1230 North Delaware Street. Indianapolis, IN 46202
Benjamin Harrison Birthplace / William Henry Harrison Home. Symmes and Washington Avenues. North Bend, OH 45052
Crown Hill Cemetery (Harrison Grave Site). 700 West 38th Street. Indianapolis, IN"

2. Background on the Battle of Resaca, Georgia May 20, 1864 from ironbrigader.com/2014/04/14/future-president-benjamin-harrison-70th-indiana-infantry-battle-resaca-georgia/
"Both Harrison and his men had fought well in the 70th’s first large battle. The regiment lost 26 men killed and 130 wounded, and these 156 casualties were the most of any Union regiment at the Battle of Resaca. Ward was wounded in the fighting, and Harrison took over brigade command. Here is Harrison’s official report of the fighting at Resaca:

HDQRS. SEVENTIETH INDIANA VOLUNTEER INFANTRY,
In the Field, near Cassville, Ga., May 20, 1864.
GENERAL: In obedience to your orders, I have the honor to submit the following report of the part taken by my regiment in the operations of our forces from the 13th to the 19th, inclusive:

On the 13th instant I moved out about four miles from Snake Creek Gap, having the advance of the brigade, and under orders from you formed line of battle on the Resaca road and moved up to the crest of a ridge connecting on the right with the forces under the command of General Mc Pherson, and having on my left one regiment of our brigade (One hundred and second Illinois Volunteer Infantry), which, with my regiment, constituted our front line and was placed by you under my command. Skirmishers were thrown out to cover the front of the line and every preparation made for a proper advance when the order should be received. Almost immediately after we had taken position the line on our right (General McPherson) was advanced and soon became engaged with the enemy, but suffered no loss. About 4 p.m., by your orders, our line was advanced, changing direction gradually to the left, and having emerged from the timber was massed on the left of General Harrow’s line, who was still skirmishing with the enemy. Shortly after dark we again changed position, relieving the regular brigade, of the Fourteenth Army Corps. My regiment was here located on the right of our brigade line and along the crest of a hill with a meadow of about 600 yards in width in front and extending from the base of the hill occupied by me to a hill opposite, which was strongly fortified and occupied in force by the enemy. As soon as day dawned on the 14th instant a sharp fire was opened by the rebel sharpshooters on my skirmishers, which was kept up quite briskly during

the day, inflicting some loss on my regiment. Early in the day of Saturday, the 14th instant, instructions were received from your headquarters that we would be ordered to assault the works in our front at some time during the day, and orders were also given by you to strengthen the skirmish line. In compliance with the order, I deployed Company D of my regiment, Captain Tansey, relieving the skirmishers under Captain Carson, who had been placed upon the line the preceding night, and a few hours subsequently communicated to Captain Tanseyan order received from your headquarters to advance his skirmishers, which was promptly though cautiously done, the men availing themselves of such meager shelter as the open field afforded. About 1 p.m., and while our line was resting behind the crest of the hill to avoid a troublesome fire which the rebel sharpshooters continued to pour in

Battle of Resaca 1864 by Kurz and Allison

upon the crest, the “attention” was sounded in the regiment on my left and was repeated in my regiment. Not having received any intimation of what movement was intended, I called to Brigadier-General Ward, who at that moment approached my left, to know what the orders were. His reply was, “The orders are to advance.” Knowing that an assault on the works in our front had been in contemplation earlier in the day, and supposing that the order involved such an assault, or at least that it involved an advance until a halt was ordered by the brigade commander, I put my regiment in march when the regiment on my left moved and passed over the crest of the hill and down its slope to a fence at its base, where I had previously instructed my officers to halt for a moment to reform their line, as they would necessarily be much broken in passing down the hill, which was very steep in some places. Under the cover of the fence I halted, and passed an inquiry to my major, who has on the left, to know whether the One hundred and second Illinois was still advancing with me. His answer was that this regiment had halted on the crest of the hill. After some time I was given to understand by one of the brigade staff, calling to me from the summit of the hill, that it was not intended that I should pass the hill, but that I should have halted on the crest, which had not been previously explained to me. By retiring the men singly or in small squads I was able without further casualties to resume our former line behind the crest of the hill. My losses during the day were as follows: On the skirmish line–killed, enlisted man, 1: wounded, enlisted men, 3; in advancing over the crest of the hill to our supposed assault–killed, enlisted men, 2; wounded, enlisted men, 10; wounded, Lieutenant Martin, Company I, slightly in the leg. During the night of Saturday, the 14th instant, under orders, I constructed, with the assistance of Lieutenant and the brigade pioneers, a line of rifle-pits along the front of my line, and had moved in at daylight four companies to occupy them as sharpshooters and watch the enemy, when we were suddenly relieved By another brigade and marched around to a new position on the left of the Fourteenth Army Corps. In our new position we were informed that our brigade, supported by the other brigades of our division, was expected to assault the enemy’s rifle-pits, and without delay our brigade was formed in column of battalions in order of rank. My regiment leading, passed from the crest of an intrenched ridge, occupied by our forces, across an open field in the valley and up a steep and thickly wooded hill to the assault of the enemy’s breastworks, whose strength, and even exact location, was only revealed by the line of fire which, with fearful destructiveness, was belched upon our advancing column. I moved my men at the double-quick and, with loud cheers, across the open space in the valley in order sooner to escape the enfilading fire from the enemy’s rifle-pits on our right and to gain the cover of the woods, with which the side of the hill against which our assault was directed was thickly covered. The men moved on with perfect steadiness and without any sign of faltering up the hillside and to the very muzzles of the enemy’s artillery, which continued to belch their deadly charges of grape and canister, until the gunners were struck down at their guns. Having gained the outer face of the embrasures, in which the enemy had four 12-pounder Napoleon guns, my line halted for a moment to take breath. Seeing that the infantry supports had deserted the artillery, I cheered the men forward, and with a wild yell they entered the embrasures, striking down and bayoneting the rebel gunners, many of whom defiantly stood by their guns till struck down.Benjamin Harrsion Come on Boys! Within this outer fortification, in which the artillery was placed, there was a strong line of breast-works, which was concealed from our view by a thick pine undergrowth, save at one point, which had been used as a gateway. This line was held by a rebel division of veteran troops, said to be of Hood’s command. When we first entered the embrasures of the outer works the enemy fled in considerable confusion from the inner one, and had there been a supporting line brought up in good order at this juncture the second line might have easily been carried and held. My line having borne the brunt of the assault, it was not to be expected that it could be reformed for a second assault in time. The enemy in a moment rallied in rear of their second line, and poured in a most destructive fire upon us, which compelled us to retire outside the first line to obtain the cover of the works. At this point some confusion was created among our forces in and about the enemy’s works (several of our battalions in rear of me having come up) by a cry that the enemy was flanking us. This caused many to retire down the hill, and had for a time the appearance of a general retreat. I strove in vain to rally my men under the enemy’s fire on the hillside, and finally followed them to a partially sheltered place behind a ridge to our left, where I was engaged in separating my men from those of other regiments and reforming them preparatory to leading them again to the support of those who still held the guns we had captured, when I was informed that General Ward was wounded, and was ordered to assume command of the brigade and reform it, which duty I discharged and then urgently asked General Butterfield for permission to take it again to the works we had carried and still held, and bring off the guns we had captured. This was refused, and by his order the brigade was placed in a new position on a hill to the left of the point at which we had assaulted, to assist in repelling an attack made by the enemy. To sum up the account of the day’s fight, I will add that detachments from my regiment, and, I believe, from each of the other regiments of the brigade, held the rebels from re-entering and taking the guns we had captured until they were brought off at night by a detail from the First and Second brigades. I would respectfully call your attention to the following points: First, my regiment entered the enemy’s works in advance of all others, and my colors, though not planted, were the first to enter the fort; second, the enemy’s lines were not penetrated at any other point than that where we entered, although assaulted by other troops on the left; third, my regiment, being in advance and having to bear the brunt of the assault, accomplished all that could have been required of them in entering the works and driving the enemy out. The work of carrying a second line of defense belonged to the support which followed me. The day following the battle my regiment, together with our whole brigade, remained on the battle-field burying our own and the rebel dead, and collecting abandoned arms and other property. Leaving the battle-ground about 5 p.m. of the 16th, were joined the division at —- Mill. In the engagement with the enemy near Cassville on the 19th instant my regiment was under quite a heavy fire of shell, but suffered no loss. I append a list of killed and wounded in my regiment.

I desire, in conclusion, to acknowledge the gallantry of my officers and men. Though never before under fire they have the testimony of the veteran foe they overcame that they bore themselves with conspicuous courage. I could not, of course, observe every individual act of gallantry on the part of my company officers, but must commend to your notice the following as especially worthy of mention for their determined and successful efforts to hold the captured guns: Capt. William M. Meredith, Capt. H. M. Scott, Lieut. M. L. Ohr, Capt. P. S. Carson, Capt. H. M. Endsley, Lieut. William C. Mitchell, Lieut. E. B. Colestock. Captain Tansey, who was severely wounded, also bore himself most gallantly. Lieut. C. H. Cox, acting adjutant, was conspicuous for his coolness and his efforts to rally the men. Lieutenant-Colonel Merrill and Major Ragan did their whole duty, and have need of no higher praise from me. Dr. Jenkins A. Fitzgerald, assistant surgeon, during all of our series of operations was always found with his regiment, dressing the wounds of those who had fallen under the heaviest fire of the enemy, manifesting a thorough disregard of his own safety in his humane desire to give the wounded the promptest surgical relief. Rev. A. C. Allen, chaplain, deserves mention for his untiring labors night and day to relieve the wants and sufferings of our wounded.

I am, general, with the greatest respect, your obedient servant,
BENJA. HARRISON,
Colonel Seventieth Indiana Volunteer Infantry.
Brig. Gen. W. T. WARD,
Comdg. First Brig., Third Div., 20th Army Corps."

The Presidents: Number 23: Benjamin Harrison
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=et11PqV0zBk

FYI Maj Robert Thornton CPT Scott SharonSFC Greg Bruorton SFC Michael Young 1stSgt Eugene Harless MSgt Ken "Airsoldier" Collins-Hardy 1SG Carl McAndrews SPC Douglas Bolton SSG David Andrews Sgt John H. SGT Mark Halmrast Cynthia Croft Sgt Vance Bonds PO1 H Gene Lawrence SGT Brent Scott CW5 John M. CMSgt (Join to see) PO2 Kevin Parker

It's interesting when you read about earlier politicians. Some of what they do would now be attributed to the "other side" which says a lot about our current situation.