James T. Harrison, of Columbus, Miss., was a lawyer and member of the Confederate Congress. Other Harrison family members represented include his father, Thomas Harrison (Fl. 1834-1838), officer in the Bank of South Carolina and land owner; his wife, Regina Blewett Harrison (fl. 1845-1868); his father-in-law, Thomas G. Blewett (fl. 1819-1869), plantation owner; his daughter, Regina (Harrison) Lee (fl. 1860-1878); and his son-in-law, Stephen Dill Lee (1833-1908), Confederate general. The collection is chiefly correspondence among Harrison family members, especially between James Thomas Harrison and his father, Thomas Harrison, and between Thomas and his brother, Isham Harrison, while Thomas was in South Carolina and James and Isham were in Mississippi. Topics include acquiring land in Mississippi, the U.S. public lands policy, the sale of slaves, the possibility of the acquisition of Texas by the U.S., and the progress of James's career as a lawyer. Also included are numerous letters from James Harrison to his wife, Regina, while he was away on trips in the northeast and Canada, and in Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana. During the Civil War, there are letters from James Harrison to Regina from Richmond, where he was serving in the Confederate Congress, including mentions of meetings with Confederate president Davis, and, after the Civil War, from Washington, D.C., where he was trying to claim his seat in Congress. Early materials include financial and legal documents pertaining to Anson and Richmond counties, N.C., probably collected by the Blewett family. A few of these papers concern Revolutionary War soldiers. Scattered throughout the collection are papers of the Earle and Sloan families of South Carolina, who were related to James Thomas Harrison through his mother.
