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Henry G. Harris was born in Scottsville, Va., July 2, 1847, and died there February 23, 1916. As a lad of sixteen he entered Mosby's command; and though his actual service was short, he was in prison for nine weary months. A few months ago a beautiful tribute to the purity of his prison life came to the ear of the writer from one who shared with him all the horrors and privations of the long imprisonment at Fort Warren, in Boston Harbor. Returning to Scottsville at the close of the war, he engaged in mercantile business with his brother, C. B. Harris. The youthful ardor which he took into the army matured into a loyal devotion to the cause for which he fought and seemed to enter into the very fiber of his personallity, characterized by an intense fidelity to the traditions of the past, an uncomprimising conviction of right, and a standard of values reaching back to a type of man and Virginian too fast disappearing. As long as strength permitted he attended the State meetings of veterans. He was Adjutant of Henry Gantt Camp, U. C. V.; and, in the words of his sorrowing comrades, "his place cannot be filled." His interest in the welfare of its members was unflagging, as was signally evinced on the last Sunday of his life, when he dictated a note to the President of the U. D. C. Chapter of Scottsville asking aid for an old veteran. He was interested in all the undertakings of this Chapter and was ever ready with advice and assistance. Mr. Harris became a Mason in early manhood and was devoted in theory and practice to the tenets of the ancient craft. About thirty-seven years ago he connected himself with the Methodist Church and was unswerving in his allegiance and devotion to the Church of his choice. The aesthetic side of life ever appealed to Mr. Harris far more strongly than the material. He loved music, books, and flowers. In reading, his taste was refined and cultured.
So mixed in him that Nature might stand up And say to all the world, 'This was a man!'"
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