Absolom A. Harrison
Company D, 4th Regiment, Kentucky Calvary Volunteers

       Absolom A. Harrison and his brother Joel (Jo) were mustered into Captain George Welling's Company as Privates on the 24th day of December, 1861, at Camp Anderson, KY. At the time of their enlistment they resided in Hardin County, Kentucky.
       A. A. Harrison sent the following letters to his wife Susan Allstun Harrison. Susan's grandmother was Nancy Lincoln Brumfield, Thomas Lincoln's sister and President Abraham Lincoln's aunt.
       These letters were transcribed by A. A.'s great-grandson Ronald A. Harrison who introduces the letters with the following background:

"A. A. Harrison and his brother Jo (Joel) apparently got caught up in a recruiting drive and enlisted in the Fourth Kentucky Calvary, U.S.A., without even going home to tell their wives, Susan and Martha. The first letter appears to be letting Susan know what has become of her husband. The two brothers served honorably for roughly a year. At the end of that time A. A. was medically discharged. At roughly the same time Jo died in a military hospital in Nashville. Only recently has anyone in the family known Jo's fate."

            This Page last updated 02/28/02

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