Jeptha Vining Harris

Who was Jeptha Vining Harris?

Jeptha Vining Harris was a brigadier general and later, after a year in private life, a colonel in the Mississippi militia, who fought in conjunction with the Confederate States Army in Mississippi during the American Civil War. His militia brigade served at Vicksburg, Mississippi during the Siege of Vicksburg. Harris and the brigade were part of the Confederate army surrendered to Union Army forces under then Major General Ulysses S. Grant on July 4, 1863. After being exchanged in July and mustered out in August, 1863, Harris returned to civilian life. On August 26, 1864, Harris was commissioned as a colonel of militia and given command of forces at Macon, Mississippi.

After graduating from the University of Georgia in 1836, Harris moved to Lowndes County, Mississippi in 1840 where he became a slaveholder and wealthy planter. He was a state militia officer before the Civil War. He was a Mississippi State Senator from Lowndes County in 1858–1861. After the war, he lived on his Lowndes County farm until his death in 1899.