Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/646

600 Davis wrote, in exemplification of the "highest quality of man, self-sacrifice for others." His body, kindly cared for by General McClellan, was subsequently transferred with tokens of respect to the hands of his friends.

 Brigadier-General David Bullock Harris, a distinguished military engineer, was born at Fredericks hall, Louisa county, Va., September 28, 1814. He was graduated at the United States military academy in 1833, with promotion to brevet second lieutenant of First artillery, and a year later was called to the position of assistant professor of engineering at West Point. On August 31, 1835, he resigned from the army and entered the profession of civil engineering, for some time being employed on the James river and Kanawha canal. Subsequently he became a planter and exporter of tobacco and flour. Early in 1861 he was commissioned captain of engineers of the Virginia forces, and was assigned to the staff of General Beauregard, with whom he was associated from that time until the end of the war. He was the first to reconnoiter the line at Bull run, planned and constructed the works for the defense of Manassas Junction, and in the heat of the fight of July 21st, at the critical moment when Elzey led his brigade upon the field, he guided that officer into position. He accompanied Beauregard to the Mississippi valley, and after inspecting the defenses at Columbus, Ky., was intrusted with the construction of works at Island No. 10 and vicinity, to which the artillery was removed from the Columbus fortifications. After the fall of New Orleans he located and constructed fortifications for heavy guns at Vicksburg, and thence he went with Beauregard in 1863 to Charleston, S. C. Of his work here, Beauregard wrote, "My best and almost only assistant for planning the construction of batteries and making the selection of sites on which they were to be erected was Maj. D. B. Harris, the chief engineer of the department, on whom I placed the utmost reliance, and who always thoroughly understood and entered into my views." Early in May, General Beauregard was at Petersburg, in command of the department of North Carolina and Southern Virginia, and here Harris, now promoted colonel, found immediate field for work at Drewry's bluff, where his services and 