Joseph Smith Harris
Encyclopedia
Joseph Smith Harris was an American
surveyor
, civil engineer
, and railroad executive. Largely self-taught, he worked on several projects for the U.S. government, including the Coast Survey of the Mississippi Sound
in 1854–56 and the Northwest Boundary Survey of 1857–61. He worked his way through a considerable number of adventures to become President of the Reading Railroad, which he brought back from its 1893 bankruptcy.
, Chester County, Pennsylvania
; the house has burned down, but the barn and springhouse still stand on what is now the Chester Valley Golf Club. His father, Stephen Harris (September 4, 1798 – November 18, 1851), was the local physician; his mother was Marianne Smith (April 2, 1805 – March 12, 1890). Stephen Harris' brothers (Joseph's uncles) included Thomas Harris
and John Harris
, who became career military officers. Joseph's paternal grandfather, William Harris
(1757 – 1812), had been an army officer in the American Revolutionary War
and thereafter, and his great-grandfather (on his mother's side) was Persifor Frazer
, a figure in the Revolution who had some prominence in Chester County.
When Joseph was a youth, his father, Stephen, realized that he was dying and that his untimely death would likely leave his family destitute. Looking to prolong his life and leave his wife with a means of supporting herself, in 1850 Stephen Harris sold his farm, moved his family to Philadelphia, and in time purchased a boarding house, as that was one of the few business occupations available to respectable women of the time. Stephen's death did indeed leave his family short of money, but his children were able to finish high school. Joseph attended Philadelphia's Central High School, graduating in 1853.
, in 1865. They had five children (see below). After the death of his first wife, Harris married Emily Eliza Potts in 1882, and in 1896, after Emily's death, he married her sister, Anna Zelia Potts. His last two marriages were childless. He died at home in Germantown, Pennsylvania
, in 1910. Harris and all three of his wives are buried in the family plot at the Great Valley Presbyterian Church, near Malvern, Pennsylvania
, about four miles (6 km) from his birthplace.
, which was under construction. He left this job after a year, becoming an astronomer for the U.S. Coast Survey
. Upon joining the Coast Survey, Harris worked at Station Yard, Philadelphia, in the late fall of 1854 where he was engaged in checking earlier triangulation and astronomic work. By mid-November, this work was completed; Harris was assigned to the Coast Survey vessel Phoenix in the Mississippi Sound
. His older brother Stephen was a Sub-assistant on the Survey, and it seems that sibling rivalry played a significant role in his work. Although he displayed many quirks of personality, Joseph Harris was meticulous in his work; his autobiography provides, among other things, an idea of Coast Survey shipboard life in the 1850s.
The trip south was not without its hardships: Harris suffered from diarrhea
on the Mississippi River and within a few days of his arrival at New Orleans
, he contracted typhoid fever
, which nearly killed him. Luckily, he was able to stay with an uncle who was a physician, and who nursed him back to health. After a month in bed, Harris proceeded to the Phoenix, then at Mobile, Alabama
, arriving in January 1855. Stephen Harris was put in command of the Phoenix in May. The work of the surveyors was made difficult by the large populations of insects—everything from mosquito
es to flying cockroach
es—that inhabited the coastal swamps and marshes, by the dearth of clean water, by the arrest of some of the crew after a brawl, and by hurricanes, all of which are described in Harris' autobiography.
During his year on the Phoenix, Harris and his crew performed triangulation along the coast from Pascagoula, Mississippi
, to the entrance to Lake Pontchartrain
, a distance of about sixty miles (100 km). With the arrival of winter, the commanders left the Phoenix; when the weather turned colder, Harris was required to lay up the vessel for the remainder of the winter. He returned to Coast Survey headquarters to complete some drafting and other engineering work, and resigned from the Survey in the Spring of 1856.
Harris took a similar position with the Kentucky
Geological Survey, but he resigned after one month in July 1856 and returned to the Gulf of Mexico
to complete his earlier work. The following March, Harris was hired as an astronomer for the Northwest Boundary Survey.
and the United States agreed by treaty to draw the western Canadian-American border along the 49th parallel
, which was largely mountainous wilderness at the time (see Oregon boundary dispute
). After some delays, a joint American-British commission began to survey and mark the boundary in 1857. Harris and G. Clinton Gardner were hired as assistant astronomers.
In his autobiography, Harris describes the survey teams, the work, the land, and the local Indians
. The British survey team, using the latest instruments, had a significant rivalry with the Americans, whom they considered uneducated and using inferior instruments. The two parties would sometimes differ on where the 49th parallel was, occasionally by as much as a mile. Harris later reported that when there were differences, the American team was usually proved right by later events.
, and when the Civil War
broke out, they were anxious to use both their surveying skills and their knowledge of the Southern coastline to aid the war effort. Harris volunteered for war service with the Survey after returning from the Northwest. By late February 1862, Coast Survey officers and the Survey vessel Uncas were prepared to sail for the Gulf Coast.
Harris, in command of the Uncas, left New York for the Gulf Coast on February 28, 1862. Damage from a gale forced the ship to head for Hampton Roads, Virginia, for repairs and fuel; they arrived in time to witness the battle between the Monitor and Virginia
(formerly the Merrimack). Because of the damage to the Uncas, Harris was ordered to transfer his equipment and crew to its sister ship, the Sachem, for the remainder of the voyage to the Gulf Coast. They left Hampton Roads on March 18 and stopped at Port Royal, South Carolina
, for coal on the 24th. There, Harris was rebuffed by the Navy supply department and was instead ordered, under threat of facing a firing squad, to support an expedition to Edisto Island. Harris declined, repeatedly stating that he was under Coast Survey orders to proceed to Ship Island and report to Commodore Farragut
. Only through the personal intervention of Commodore Samuel Francis Du Pont
was the Sachem finally coaled and allowed to depart Port Royal. Following another coaling stop at Key West
(during which four men mutinied and refused orders to pass coal to the vessel), Harris continued on to Ship Island and arrived April 9, to discover that the fleet had left the day before and gone to the mouth of the Mississippi River. The Sachem proceeded to the Mississippi River and arrived April 10, when Harris turned over command of the small steamer to Ferdinand Gerdes, who had arrived a few days earlier.
In April, Harris and the other surveyors marked navigable channels in the river and established survey markers on the shore to serve as control points for indirect artillery fire into the forts defending the approaches to New Orleans. They also placed buoys in the river to mark where the gunboats should anchor. Their work was performed under fire from the forts and from Confederate
gunboats. On April 18, Union mortar boats began firing on Fort Jackson
in what may be the first combat use of "blind" firing of artillery based on aiming the weapons from a known, surveyed location at a target with known survey coordinate points. Not all of the firing was blind, however. Currents in the river sometimes caused the gunboats to swing at anchor, thus changing their orientation and causing their shells to go astray. Harris spent most of one day up the mast of one of the mortar boats, looking over the trees, noting the location of mortar shell explosions, and calling down rudder commands to cause the boats to vary their headings slightly, in order to adjust firing direction. The forts having been weakened by the bombardment, the naval flotilla forced its way past them on April 24 (see Battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip
), and on to New Orleans
. The effectiveness of the bombardment of Fort Jackson has been disputed (Commander David Dixon Porter
had a reputation for bragging, exaggeration, and embellishment of facts in his reports and correspondence), but the Confederate casualties and subsequent mutiny of the troops are well-documented.
Commander Porter wrote to Alexander Dallas Bache
, superintendent of the Coast Survey, concerning the battle of Forts St. Philip and Jackson:
Following the fall of New Orleans, Harris participated in further surveys along the Gulf Coast, leading up to the Battle of Mobile Bay
. By mid-year, his usefulness to the war effort had been exhausted, as the portion of the coastline with which he was familiar was in Union hands. He again left the Survey and returned north, where he re-joined the Northwest Boundary Survey, which was then performing its office work.
. The two worked together doing survey work for the Lehigh Valley Rail Road
and the Pennsylvania Rail Road Company
. This work exposed them to danger in the form of the Molly Maguires
, who were active in the coal fields of Pennsylvania at the time. Joseph Harris carried a blackjack with him, in case of attack, but it appears that he never had to use it. He worked for the Lehigh and Mahanoy Railroad
1864 – 68 and served as chief engineer for the Morris & Essex Railroad 1868 – 70. He was an engineer at the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Company from 1870 – 77, and served as superintendent and engineer for the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company
1877 – 80. He became general manager of the Central Railroad of New Jersey
in 1880, serving in that capacity until 1882; the Central of New Jersey came under the control of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad
. He returned to the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Co. as president 1883 – 93, also serving as receiver and then vice president of the Central of New Jersey 1886 – 90. He became vice president of the Philadelphia & Reading Coal and Iron Co. in 1892.
At the outset of the Panic of 1893
, the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad went bankrupt
and its president, Archibald A. McLeod, resigned. J. P. Morgan
, who owned or controlled a considerable portion of the P&R's stock and debt, chose Harris, known to be a fiscal conservative, as one of the company's receivers, and later its president. At the time, he was president of the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Co., and it took some persuasion to get him to assume control of his bankrupt rival. He oversaw the reorganization of the shattered company, beginning by stabilizing the railroad and its Coal and Iron Company. A new corporation, the Reading Company
, was formed to buy the assets of its bankrupt predecessor, and Harris was its first president. A period of much consolidation of the track networks followed, and by the end of the decade, the company reported a combined annual profit of nearly two million dollars.
A down-to-earth civil engineer, Harris foresaw looming difficulties for the Reading that his senior lieutenants could not or would not see. These included shifts in transportation patterns and the rise of organized labor. When he resigned as president in 1901, he noted, among other things, growing factionalism among the company's officers.
Harris was a member of the American Philosophical Society
and the Pennsylvania Historical Society. He became a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania
in 1889 and was awarded a D.Sc. by Franklin & Marshall College
in 1903. He wrote his memoirs, which included criticism of his anti-union successor as president of the Reading, George Frederick Baer
, in the Reading Terminal
building in his retirement. He died in 1910.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
surveyor
Surveying
See Also: Public Land Survey SystemSurveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, and science of accurately determining the terrestrial or three-dimensional position of points and the distances and angles between them...
, civil engineer
Civil engineer
A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering; the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructures while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing infrastructures that have been neglected.Originally, a...
, and railroad executive. Largely self-taught, he worked on several projects for the U.S. government, including the Coast Survey of the Mississippi Sound
Mississippi Sound
The Mississippi Sound is a sound along the Gulf Coast of the United States. It runs east-west along the southern coasts of Mississippi and Alabama, from Waveland, Mississippi, to the Dauphin Island Bridge, a distance of about 145 kilometers...
in 1854–56 and the Northwest Boundary Survey of 1857–61. He worked his way through a considerable number of adventures to become President of the Reading Railroad, which he brought back from its 1893 bankruptcy.
Family and early life
Joseph Smith Harris was born on the family farm in East Whiteland TownshipEast Whiteland Township, Pennsylvania
East Whiteland Township is a township in Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 10,650 at the 2010 census.-History:...
, Chester County, Pennsylvania
Chester County, Pennsylvania
-State parks:*French Creek State Park*Marsh Creek State Park*White Clay Creek Preserve-Demographics:As of the 2010 census, the county was 85.5% White, 6.1% Black or African American, 0.2% Native American or Alaskan Native, 3.9% Asian, 0.0% Native Hawaiian, 1.8% were two or more races, and 2.4% were...
; the house has burned down, but the barn and springhouse still stand on what is now the Chester Valley Golf Club. His father, Stephen Harris (September 4, 1798 – November 18, 1851), was the local physician; his mother was Marianne Smith (April 2, 1805 – March 12, 1890). Stephen Harris' brothers (Joseph's uncles) included Thomas Harris
Thomas Harris (surgeon)
Thomas Harris was a U.S. naval officer. He served as the second Chief of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery.-Career:...
and John Harris
John Harris (USMC)
John Harris was the sixth Commandant of the Marine Corps. He served in the Marine Corps for over 50 years, attaining the rank of colonel.-Family:...
, who became career military officers. Joseph's paternal grandfather, William Harris
William Harris (colonist)
William Harris was a farmer, soldier, and member of the Pennsylvania legislature. He was the father of two other American military men.-Early life:...
(1757 – 1812), had been an army officer in the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
and thereafter, and his great-grandfather (on his mother's side) was Persifor Frazer
Persifor Frazer
Persifor Frazer was an American farmer, soldier, and industrialist, and the founder of one of the most prominent families of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....
, a figure in the Revolution who had some prominence in Chester County.
When Joseph was a youth, his father, Stephen, realized that he was dying and that his untimely death would likely leave his family destitute. Looking to prolong his life and leave his wife with a means of supporting herself, in 1850 Stephen Harris sold his farm, moved his family to Philadelphia, and in time purchased a boarding house, as that was one of the few business occupations available to respectable women of the time. Stephen's death did indeed leave his family short of money, but his children were able to finish high school. Joseph attended Philadelphia's Central High School, graduating in 1853.
Marriages
Harris married Delia Silliman Brodhead, daughter of George Hamilton Brodhead, later president of the New York Stock ExchangeNew York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located at 11 Wall Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City, USA. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed companies at 13.39 trillion as of Dec 2010...
, in 1865. They had five children (see below). After the death of his first wife, Harris married Emily Eliza Potts in 1882, and in 1896, after Emily's death, he married her sister, Anna Zelia Potts. His last two marriages were childless. He died at home in Germantown, Pennsylvania
Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Germantown is a neighborhood in the northwest section of the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, about 7–8 miles northwest from the center of the city...
, in 1910. Harris and all three of his wives are buried in the family plot at the Great Valley Presbyterian Church, near Malvern, Pennsylvania
Malvern, Pennsylvania
Malvern is a borough in Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 2,998 at the 2010 census. The main road through the borough is King Street, although the borough is also bordered by Paoli Pike on the south, and is near US 30 on the north. The primary cross street is Warren...
, about four miles (6 km) from his birthplace.
Coast Survey
In 1853, Harris took a job as a topographer for the North Pennsylvania Rail Road CompanyNorth Pennsylvania Railroad
North Pennsylvania Railroad was a railroad company formed in 1855, and served Philadelphia, Montgomery County, Bucks County and Northampton County, Pennsylvania.-History:...
, which was under construction. He left this job after a year, becoming an astronomer for the U.S. Coast Survey
U.S. National Geodetic Survey
National Geodetic Survey, formerly called the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey , is a United States federal agency that defines and manages a national coordinate system, providing the foundation for transportation and communication; mapping and charting; and a large number of applications of science...
. Upon joining the Coast Survey, Harris worked at Station Yard, Philadelphia, in the late fall of 1854 where he was engaged in checking earlier triangulation and astronomic work. By mid-November, this work was completed; Harris was assigned to the Coast Survey vessel Phoenix in the Mississippi Sound
Mississippi Sound
The Mississippi Sound is a sound along the Gulf Coast of the United States. It runs east-west along the southern coasts of Mississippi and Alabama, from Waveland, Mississippi, to the Dauphin Island Bridge, a distance of about 145 kilometers...
. His older brother Stephen was a Sub-assistant on the Survey, and it seems that sibling rivalry played a significant role in his work. Although he displayed many quirks of personality, Joseph Harris was meticulous in his work; his autobiography provides, among other things, an idea of Coast Survey shipboard life in the 1850s.
The trip south was not without its hardships: Harris suffered from diarrhea
Diarrhea
Diarrhea , also spelled diarrhoea, is the condition of having three or more loose or liquid bowel movements per day. It is a common cause of death in developing countries and the second most common cause of infant deaths worldwide. The loss of fluids through diarrhea can cause dehydration and...
on the Mississippi River and within a few days of his arrival at New Orleans
New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...
, he contracted typhoid fever
Typhoid fever
Typhoid fever, also known as Typhoid, is a common worldwide bacterial disease, transmitted by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with the feces of an infected person, which contain the bacterium Salmonella enterica, serovar Typhi...
, which nearly killed him. Luckily, he was able to stay with an uncle who was a physician, and who nursed him back to health. After a month in bed, Harris proceeded to the Phoenix, then at Mobile, Alabama
Mobile, Alabama
Mobile is the third most populous city in the Southern US state of Alabama and is the county seat of Mobile County. It is located on the Mobile River and the central Gulf Coast of the United States. The population within the city limits was 195,111 during the 2010 census. It is the largest...
, arriving in January 1855. Stephen Harris was put in command of the Phoenix in May. The work of the surveyors was made difficult by the large populations of insects—everything from mosquito
Mosquito
Mosquitoes are members of a family of nematocerid flies: the Culicidae . The word Mosquito is from the Spanish and Portuguese for little fly...
es to flying cockroach
Cockroach
Cockroaches are insects of the order Blattaria or Blattodea, of which about 30 species out of 4,500 total are associated with human habitations...
es—that inhabited the coastal swamps and marshes, by the dearth of clean water, by the arrest of some of the crew after a brawl, and by hurricanes, all of which are described in Harris' autobiography.
During his year on the Phoenix, Harris and his crew performed triangulation along the coast from Pascagoula, Mississippi
Pascagoula, Mississippi
Pascagoula is a city in Jackson County, Mississippi, United States. It is the principal city of the Pascagoula, Mississippi Metropolitan Statistical Area, as a part of the Gulfport–Biloxi–Pascagoula, Mississippi Combined Statistical Area. The population was 26,200 at the 2000 census...
, to the entrance to Lake Pontchartrain
Lake Pontchartrain
Lake Pontchartrain is a brackish estuary located in southeastern Louisiana. It is the second-largest inland saltwater body of water in the United States, after the Great Salt Lake in Utah, and the largest lake in Louisiana. As an estuary, Pontchartrain is not a true lake.It covers an area of with...
, a distance of about sixty miles (100 km). With the arrival of winter, the commanders left the Phoenix; when the weather turned colder, Harris was required to lay up the vessel for the remainder of the winter. He returned to Coast Survey headquarters to complete some drafting and other engineering work, and resigned from the Survey in the Spring of 1856.
Harris took a similar position with the Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
Geological Survey, but he resigned after one month in July 1856 and returned to the Gulf of Mexico
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico is a partially landlocked ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. In...
to complete his earlier work. The following March, Harris was hired as an astronomer for the Northwest Boundary Survey.
Northwest Boundary Survey
In 1846, BritainUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
and the United States agreed by treaty to draw the western Canadian-American border along the 49th parallel
49th parallel north
The 49th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 49 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses Europe, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, North America, and the Atlantic Ocean....
, which was largely mountainous wilderness at the time (see Oregon boundary dispute
Oregon boundary dispute
The Oregon boundary dispute, or the Oregon Question, arose as a result of competing British and American claims to the Pacific Northwest of North America in the first half of the 19th century. Both the United Kingdom and the United States had territorial and commercial aspirations in the region...
). After some delays, a joint American-British commission began to survey and mark the boundary in 1857. Harris and G. Clinton Gardner were hired as assistant astronomers.
In his autobiography, Harris describes the survey teams, the work, the land, and the local Indians
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
. The British survey team, using the latest instruments, had a significant rivalry with the Americans, whom they considered uneducated and using inferior instruments. The two parties would sometimes differ on where the 49th parallel was, occasionally by as much as a mile. Harris later reported that when there were differences, the American team was usually proved right by later events.
Civil War
The men of the Coast Survey were overwhelmingly pro-UnionUnion (American Civil War)
During the American Civil War, the Union was a name used to refer to the federal government of the United States, which was supported by the twenty free states and five border slave states. It was opposed by 11 southern slave states that had declared a secession to join together to form the...
, and when the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
broke out, they were anxious to use both their surveying skills and their knowledge of the Southern coastline to aid the war effort. Harris volunteered for war service with the Survey after returning from the Northwest. By late February 1862, Coast Survey officers and the Survey vessel Uncas were prepared to sail for the Gulf Coast.
Harris, in command of the Uncas, left New York for the Gulf Coast on February 28, 1862. Damage from a gale forced the ship to head for Hampton Roads, Virginia, for repairs and fuel; they arrived in time to witness the battle between the Monitor and Virginia
Battle of Hampton Roads
The Battle of Hampton Roads, often referred to as either the Battle of the Monitor and Merrimack or the Battle of Ironclads, was the most noted and arguably most important naval battle of the American Civil War from the standpoint of the development of navies...
(formerly the Merrimack). Because of the damage to the Uncas, Harris was ordered to transfer his equipment and crew to its sister ship, the Sachem, for the remainder of the voyage to the Gulf Coast. They left Hampton Roads on March 18 and stopped at Port Royal, South Carolina
Port Royal, South Carolina
Port Royal is a town in Beaufort County, South Carolina, United States. Largely because of annexation of surrounding areas , the population of Port Royal rose from 3,950 in 2000 to 10,678 in 2010, a 170% increase. As defined by the U.S...
, for coal on the 24th. There, Harris was rebuffed by the Navy supply department and was instead ordered, under threat of facing a firing squad, to support an expedition to Edisto Island. Harris declined, repeatedly stating that he was under Coast Survey orders to proceed to Ship Island and report to Commodore Farragut
David Farragut
David Glasgow Farragut was a flag officer of the United States Navy during the American Civil War. He was the first rear admiral, vice admiral, and admiral in the United States Navy. He is remembered in popular culture for his order at the Battle of Mobile Bay, usually paraphrased: "Damn the...
. Only through the personal intervention of Commodore Samuel Francis Du Pont
Samuel Francis du Pont
Samuel Francis Du Pont was an American naval officer who achieved the rank of Rear Admiral in the United States Navy, and a member of the prominent Du Pont family; he was the only member of his generation to use a capital D...
was the Sachem finally coaled and allowed to depart Port Royal. Following another coaling stop at Key West
Key West
Key West is an island in the Straits of Florida on the North American continent at the southernmost tip of the Florida Keys. Key West is home to the southernmost point in the Continental United States; the island is about from Cuba....
(during which four men mutinied and refused orders to pass coal to the vessel), Harris continued on to Ship Island and arrived April 9, to discover that the fleet had left the day before and gone to the mouth of the Mississippi River. The Sachem proceeded to the Mississippi River and arrived April 10, when Harris turned over command of the small steamer to Ferdinand Gerdes, who had arrived a few days earlier.
In April, Harris and the other surveyors marked navigable channels in the river and established survey markers on the shore to serve as control points for indirect artillery fire into the forts defending the approaches to New Orleans. They also placed buoys in the river to mark where the gunboats should anchor. Their work was performed under fire from the forts and from Confederate
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
gunboats. On April 18, Union mortar boats began firing on Fort Jackson
Fort Jackson, Louisiana
Fort Jackson is a decommissioned masonry fort located some up river from the mouth of the Mississippi River in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana. It was constructed as a coastal defense of New Orleans between 1822 and 1832, and was a battle site in the American Civil War. It is a National Historic...
in what may be the first combat use of "blind" firing of artillery based on aiming the weapons from a known, surveyed location at a target with known survey coordinate points. Not all of the firing was blind, however. Currents in the river sometimes caused the gunboats to swing at anchor, thus changing their orientation and causing their shells to go astray. Harris spent most of one day up the mast of one of the mortar boats, looking over the trees, noting the location of mortar shell explosions, and calling down rudder commands to cause the boats to vary their headings slightly, in order to adjust firing direction. The forts having been weakened by the bombardment, the naval flotilla forced its way past them on April 24 (see Battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip
Battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip
The Battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip was the decisive battle for possession of New Orleans in the American Civil War. The two Confederate forts on the Mississippi River south of the city were attacked by a Union Navy fleet...
), and on to New Orleans
Battle of New Orleans (Civil War)
The Capture of New Orleans during the American Civil War was an important event for the Union. Having fought past Forts Jackson and St. Philip, the Union was unopposed in its capture of the city itself, which was spared the destruction suffered by many other Southern cities...
. The effectiveness of the bombardment of Fort Jackson has been disputed (Commander David Dixon Porter
David Dixon Porter
David Dixon Porter was a member of one of the most distinguished families in the history of the United States Navy. Promoted as the second man to the rank of admiral, after his adoptive brother David G...
had a reputation for bragging, exaggeration, and embellishment of facts in his reports and correspondence), but the Confederate casualties and subsequent mutiny of the troops are well-documented.
Commander Porter wrote to Alexander Dallas Bache
Alexander Dallas Bache
Alexander Dallas Bache was an American physicist, scientist and surveyor who erected coastal fortifications and conducted a detailed survey mapping of the United States coastline.-Biography:...
, superintendent of the Coast Survey, concerning the battle of Forts St. Philip and Jackson:
Following the fall of New Orleans, Harris participated in further surveys along the Gulf Coast, leading up to the Battle of Mobile Bay
Battle of Mobile Bay
The Battle of Mobile Bay of August 5, 1864, was an engagement of the American Civil War in which a Federal fleet commanded by Rear Adm. David G. Farragut, assisted by a contingent of soldiers, attacked a smaller Confederate fleet led by Adm...
. By mid-year, his usefulness to the war effort had been exhausted, as the portion of the coastline with which he was familiar was in Union hands. He again left the Survey and returned north, where he re-joined the Northwest Boundary Survey, which was then performing its office work.
Railroad career
Harris returned to railroad work around 1864, entering private practice as a civil and mining engineer and also joining his older brother Stephen in the Schuylkill Company of Pottsville, PennsylvaniaPottsville, Pennsylvania
Pottsville is the only city in and the county seat of Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 15,549 at the 2000 census. The city lies along the west bank of the Schuylkill River, north-west of Philadelphia...
. The two worked together doing survey work for the Lehigh Valley Rail Road
Lehigh Valley Railroad
The Lehigh Valley Railroad was one of a number of railroads built in the northeastern United States primarily to haul anthracite coal.It was authorized April 21, 1846 in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and incorporated September 20, 1847 as the Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill and Susquehanna Railroad...
and the Pennsylvania Rail Road Company
Pennsylvania Railroad
The Pennsylvania Railroad was an American Class I railroad, founded in 1846. Commonly referred to as the "Pennsy", the PRR was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....
. This work exposed them to danger in the form of the Molly Maguires
Molly Maguires
The Molly Maguires were members of an Irish-American secret society, whose members consisted mainly of coal miners. Many historians believe the "Mollies" were present in the anthracite coal fields of Pennsylvania in the United States from approximately the time of the American Civil War until a...
, who were active in the coal fields of Pennsylvania at the time. Joseph Harris carried a blackjack with him, in case of attack, but it appears that he never had to use it. He worked for the Lehigh and Mahanoy Railroad
Lehigh and Mahanoy Railroad
The Lehigh and Mahanoy Railroad, originally the Quakake Railroad , was part of the Mahanoy Branch of the Lehigh Valley Railroad in northeastern Pennsylvania.-History:...
1864 – 68 and served as chief engineer for the Morris & Essex Railroad 1868 – 70. He was an engineer at the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Company from 1870 – 77, and served as superintendent and engineer for the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company
Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company
The Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company is an anthracite coal mining company headquartered in Pottsville, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., with operations in the areas of Tamaqua, Coaldale, and Lansford...
1877 – 80. He became general manager of the Central Railroad of New Jersey
Central Railroad of New Jersey
The Central Railroad of New Jersey , commonly known as the Jersey Central Lines or CNJ, was a Class I railroad with origins in the 1830s, lasting until 1976 when it was absorbed into Conrail with the other bankrupt railroads of the Northeastern United States...
in 1880, serving in that capacity until 1882; the Central of New Jersey came under the control of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad
Reading Company
The Reading Company , usually called the Reading Railroad, officially the Philadelphia and Reading Rail Road and then the Philadelphia and Reading Railway until 1924, operated in southeast Pennsylvania and neighboring states...
. He returned to the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Co. as president 1883 – 93, also serving as receiver and then vice president of the Central of New Jersey 1886 – 90. He became vice president of the Philadelphia & Reading Coal and Iron Co. in 1892.
At the outset of the Panic of 1893
Panic of 1893
The Panic of 1893 was a serious economic depression in the United States that began in 1893. Similar to the Panic of 1873, this panic was marked by the collapse of railroad overbuilding and shaky railroad financing which set off a series of bank failures...
, the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad went bankrupt
Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....
and its president, Archibald A. McLeod, resigned. J. P. Morgan
J. P. Morgan
John Pierpont Morgan was an American financier, banker and art collector who dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation during his time. In 1892 Morgan arranged the merger of Edison General Electric and Thomson-Houston Electric Company to form General Electric...
, who owned or controlled a considerable portion of the P&R's stock and debt, chose Harris, known to be a fiscal conservative, as one of the company's receivers, and later its president. At the time, he was president of the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Co., and it took some persuasion to get him to assume control of his bankrupt rival. He oversaw the reorganization of the shattered company, beginning by stabilizing the railroad and its Coal and Iron Company. A new corporation, the Reading Company
Reading Company
The Reading Company , usually called the Reading Railroad, officially the Philadelphia and Reading Rail Road and then the Philadelphia and Reading Railway until 1924, operated in southeast Pennsylvania and neighboring states...
, was formed to buy the assets of its bankrupt predecessor, and Harris was its first president. A period of much consolidation of the track networks followed, and by the end of the decade, the company reported a combined annual profit of nearly two million dollars.
A down-to-earth civil engineer, Harris foresaw looming difficulties for the Reading that his senior lieutenants could not or would not see. These included shifts in transportation patterns and the rise of organized labor. When he resigned as president in 1901, he noted, among other things, growing factionalism among the company's officers.
Harris was a member of the American Philosophical Society
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society, founded in 1743, and located in Philadelphia, Pa., is an eminent scholarly organization of international reputation, that promotes useful knowledge in the sciences and humanities through excellence in scholarly research, professional meetings, publications,...
and the Pennsylvania Historical Society. He became a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
in 1889 and was awarded a D.Sc. by Franklin & Marshall College
Franklin & Marshall College
Franklin & Marshall College is a four-year private co-educational residential national liberal arts college in the Northwest Corridor neighborhood of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, United States....
in 1903. He wrote his memoirs, which included criticism of his anti-union successor as president of the Reading, George Frederick Baer
George Frederick Baer
George Frederick Baer was an American lawyer who was the President of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad and spokesman for the owners during the Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902....
, in the Reading Terminal
Reading Terminal
The Reading Terminal is a complex of buildings located in the Market East section of Center City in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States...
building in his retirement. He died in 1910.
Descendants
Joseph and Delia Harris had five children:- Marian Frazer Harris (1866–1960). She married James deWolf Perry and was known for her long-lasting friendship with Beatrix PotterBeatrix PotterHelen Beatrix Potter was an English author, illustrator, natural scientist and conservationist best known for her imaginative children’s books featuring animals such as those in The Tale of Peter Rabbit which celebrated the British landscape and country life.Born into a privileged Unitarian...
. - George Brodhead Harris (1868–1952). He married Elizabeth Holbert.
- Frances Brodhead Harris (1870–1925). She married Reynolds Driver Brown.
- Clinton Gardner Harris (1872–1910). He did not marry.
- Madeline Vaughan ("Sally") Harris (1873–1966). She married Henry Ingersoll Brown, brother of Reynolds D. Brown.
Footnotes
Abbreviations used in these notes:- Official atlas: Atlas to accompany the official records of the Union and Confederate armies.
- ORA (Official records, armies): War of the Rebellion: a compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate Armies.
- ORN (Official records, navies): Official records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion.
External LInks
- The Joseph Smith Harris Correspondence, containing approximately 150 letters to and from Harris, is available for research use at the Historical Society of PennsylvaniaHistorical Society of PennsylvaniaThe Historical Society of Pennsylvania is a historical society founded in 1824 and based in Philadelphia. The Society's building, designed by Addison Hutton and listed on Philadelphia's Register of Historical Places, houses some 600,000 printed items and over 19 million manuscript and graphic items...
.