Mar 18, 1813 - Feb 28, 1872

Section A, Lot 122, Grave 3
-- See section's Lot Layout map

Inscription and Notes:

Government Service.
[Represented county at state secession
convention in 1861. State constitution
convention in 1865.]

Benjamin Tarpley Harris

Benjamin Tarpley Harris ( March 18, 1813 - Feb. 25, 1872) married Judith Ann Sasnett in 1831. Their home on Maiden Lane still stands (2002). Harris was president of the Hancock Planters Club. He represented the county at the state's secession convention in early 1861 and opposed immediate secession. He became captain of the Hancock Mounted Rifles and during the Civil War served on the staff of Governor Joseph E. Brown. At war's end he was a delegate to the State Constitution Convention of 1865. When Eliza Frances Andrews, the Civil War diarist, came through Sparta in April 1865, Harris offered refuge in his home. As his daughter Clara (later wife of the noted planter David Dickson) played the piano after supper, the diarist noted "nobody could sing. Even Dixie sounded like a dirge."

[Sources: Elizabeth Wiley Smith's History of Hancock, Vol. II, contains Harris genealogy. Frequent references are made to Harris in Forrest Shivers' history of Hancock county. Also see The war-time journal of a Georgia girl, 1864-1865 by Eliza Frances Andrews.]

See others in this cemetery lot.