Northampton-Accomack County Virginia USGenWeb Archives Biographies.....Harmanson, James R. 1830 - 1862
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Alice Warner http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00015.html#0003503 August 22, 2008, 2:11 pm

Author: Rev. John Lipscomb Johnson B A

JAMES R. HARMANSON
1st Lieutenant, Company F, 4th Virginia Battalion

James R. Harmanson was born in Northampton county, Virginia, on the second day
of October, 1830. He was the son of William Harmanson and Margaret, his wife,
who before her marriage was Miss Margaret Mapp. His paternal ancestors were
among the first settlers, and appear at an early date in the records of
Northampton county. Among his relations have been and are many of the most
intelligent and worthy citizens of the county. The family name of his mother
also appears at an early period in the ancient records of Northampton. The
father and mother of Lieutenant Harmanson both survive him, and have already
passed the allotted threescore and ten years. Also survive him two sisters--
Virginia, the widow of William Leatherberry, late of the county of Northampton;
and Elizabeth, the wife of David A. Dunton, a worthy and esteemed farmer of the
same county. The father of Lieutenant Harmanson has spent his entire life in
agricultural pursuits, and has always been highly respected as an upright
citizen and exemplary member of the Protestant Episcopal Church.

JAMES HARMANSON received his early education in the private schools of his
native county. At the age of sixteen he entered Delaware College, and pursued
his studies there for two collegiate years. In October, 1849, he entered the
University of Virginia as a student, and continued in this institution for three
sessions, until he was prepared to enter upon the practice of the law. At the
University, during his first session, he became a member of the Washington
Society, and was regarded by his fellow-members as a young man of quick
perception, cultivated taste, and as a ready debater, which  characteristics
were more fully developed when he entered upon the active pursuits of his
profession and became somewhat of a politician. Upon returning home from the
University he located in Northampton, and commenced the practice of his
profession. At an early age he espoused the States' Rights school in politics,
and soon after the organization of the Know-Nothing party, he became an active
politician.

In the spring of 1857, by a nomination from the Democratic party, he became a
candidate in Northampton for the House of Delegates of Virginia, and although in
a county which had, at the then late election for Governor, given a large
Know-Nothing majority, after an active canvass in which party prejudices and
feelings were perhaps as violent as at any period of the State's history, he was
defeated only by a small majority.

On the tenth day of June, 1858, he was married to Miss Tabitha Snead, daughter
of Lewis L. and Esther Snead, of the county of Accomack ; and soon after this
event, he moved to the county of Accomack to live and engage in the pursuit of
his profession. The fruits of this marriage were a daughter, Margaret Esther,
who was born April 27th, 1859, and Lewis W., born March 14th, 1861.

Fully imbued with the doctrine of State Sovereignty, and as a natural
consequence, of Secession, JAMES HARMANSON was among the first to draw his sword
in defence of the rights and honor of his native State. Soon after the passage
of the ordinance of
Secession by the Convention of Virginia, and even before its ratification by the
people, it was deemed necessary by the wisest and most prudent men on the
Eastern Shore of Virginia, that preparation should be made for its defence, cut
off as it was by the Chesapeake Bay from all aid or assistance from the Western
Shore. The militia was fully organized and officered, volunteer companies were
formed, and in the month of June, the Executive Council appointed by the
Convention of Virginia, composed of Gen. R. E. Lee and others, advised the
organization of a volunteer  regiment for home defence, and commissioned the
officers to command the same. Mr. HARMANSON was one of the most active
in this work of preparation. At one time he held a commission as Captain in the
2d Regiment of Virginia Militia, and afterwards, he was engaged in the
organization of an artillery company, to be used in defence of the peninsula.
During the period that elapsed from the time the first steps were taken for
defence, until General Lockwood, with a strong force of well disciplined Federal
troops, was sent by General John A. Dix to conquer and subjugate the two Eastern
Shore counties, he was one of the most active and energetic in their defence.

On the fifteenth of November, 1861, Brigadier-General H. H. Lockwood, having
assembled in and around New Town, Worcester county, Maryland, over eight
thousand troops, well armed and equipped, the very flower of the Federal army in
obedience to orders from General Dix, forwarded through the picket line his
memorable proclamation, setting forth the utter futility of an attempt at
resistance by the two Eastern Shore counties, cut off as they were from any hope
of supplies or reinforcement, and calling upon those in arms to disperse and
return to their homes, promising protection both of person and property to those
who thus availed themselves of the benefits of his proclamation. How
strictly this was adhered to, General Lockwood's subsequent history of perfidy
will fully illustrate. Upon the reception of this proclamation a council of
officers was held, and finding that further resistance was impossible, it was
determined to disband the regiments and leave the individuals free to act as
their judgment might dictate. Mr. HARMANSON was not long in making his election,
and determined to bid farewell to home, wife, children, and family, and to risk
his fate with the cause he had so ardently
espoused. With this determination, in the latter part of November, 1861, in a
small open boat, with a few friends, in the night time, he crossed the
Chesapeake Bay, and running the Blockade, landed at Gloucester Point. It was but
a short time after this, before many of the scattered soldiers who had
voluntarily made their escape from the Eastern Shore, formed themselves into a
volunteer company, and in this company, commanded by
Captain John White, JAMES HARMANSON was made 1st Lieutenant. He was stationed at
Gloucester Point until its evacuation in the spring of 1862, when, along with
the rest of the army, this company fell back to Richmond, where it was
incorporated with the
4th Virginia Battalion. 

At the battle of Seven Pines, on Saturday, the 31st of May, 1862, while
gallantly leading his company to victory, and at the very moment when the enemy
were driven from their camps, and the ground occupied by the Confederate troops,
Lieutenant HARMANSON fell, his brain having been pierced by a minie ball, sent
from the retreating foe. The last words he was ever known to utter were,
"Forward boys ! if we fall, we die patriots." 

Upon the field where he so nobly fell, with his blanket for a winding-sheet and
coffin, he was buried by his comrades. The stake which was placed at his head
having been removed, his friends could never after identify the spot, and his
remains now lie where they were placed by his gallant comrades, amidst the din
and smoke of battle. 

To show the noble spirit which actuated this patriot soldier, from his last
letter to his now bereaved widow I take the following extract. He says : — " I
have heard the booming of artillery and the whistle of shell for fifteen days. I
see the Yankee lines every day, and have seen their pickets and ours fighting
for one week. I had rather be here to-day and stand erect amid all the storms
and clouds of war that may befall my lot, than to be the despot's slave. I feel
that I have left wife, children, father, mother, sisters, relatives, friends,
and the graves of my forefathers, and remembering this, my path is straight,
cheerfully to death or gloriously to victory." 
"Though foul are the drops that oft distil
On the field of warfare, blood like this
For liberty shed so holy is,
It would not stain the purest rill
That sparkles among the Bowers of Bliss !
Oh ! if there be, on this earthly sphere,
A boon, an offering, Heaven holds dear, 
'Tis the last libation liberty draws
From the heart that bleeds and breaks in her cause."

The widow and children of Lieutenant HARMANSON still survive him, but his death
so affected his widow, that after a short time, overcome by grief, her mind gave
way, and she is now a complete wreck, unable to take care of the little ones
left to her charge, and herself dependent upon the good offices of friends. 

Additional Comments:
Page 123-127
The University Memorial
Biographical Sketches of Alumni of the University of Virginia who Fell in the
Confederate War
By Rev. John Lipscomb Johnson B A
1871

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