[1][2] His father, George Paul Harrison, was a wealthy planter, state legislator and brigadier general of Georgia militia during the American Civil War.

[3] On January 3, 1861, at the onset of tensions which would lead to the Civil War later that April, Harrison entered the Confederate States Army as second lieutenant of the First Georgia Regulars.

[2] Harrison then returned to the army and was successively promoted over the course of the war to first lieutenant, major, colonel, and acting brigadier general.

During the war, Harrison undertook the command responsibility of brigadier general, leading a brigade during the Carolinas Campaign and at the Battle of Bentonville, and elsewhere.

[3] Harrison was elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-third Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of William C. Oates.

She was graduated with first honors from the Wesleyan Female College, at Macon, Georgia, afterwards taking a musical course at the Cincinnati Conservatory, which was supplemented by two years' study in New York City with Ernani.

Her voice is well adapted for sacred and dramatic music, and she was requested to sing at leading Washington churches.

This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress