He served as Chief of Staff of the XVIII Airborne Corps, and commanded a regiment in the 40th Infantry Division during the Korean War.
It is important to note that in 1980 Pat Conroy published the novel "The Lords of Discipline" with a fictional "Carolina Military Institute" mirrored after the Citadel.
The novel described a Commanding General who was a highly decorated senior army officer, having served in both the Korean War and World War II, who now oversaw the integration of a lone black cadet in a deeply conservative southern military academy.
Unlike Harris, the fictional general in the novel is the power behind an organization called "The Ten" who attempts to run the black cadet out of the school, nearly killing him in the process.
Citadel authorities derided Conway's book, in particular his alluding to General Harris, as a fabricated and untrue story.