Execution of Jacob Harmon and His Son Henry

  • Creator: Richardson and Cox, engravers
  • Title: Execution of Jacob Harmon and His Son Henry
  • Date: 1862
  • Description: This image depicts a man and a youth standing on a wooden platform as nooses are placed around their necks by two other men while a uniformed soldier stands alongside with sword raised in the air. In the foreground are several uniformed soldiers next to a wagon. There are several agitated bystanders, a man on horseback, and a Confederate flag in the right section of the image.
  • Historical Note: Jacob Harmon and his son Henry belonged to a group of Union loyalists who destroyed the Lick Creek Bridge on the East Tennessee & Virginia Railroad on the night of November 8-9, 1861. Harmon owned much of the area around Pottertown and might also have been working as a potter.These men, along with master potter Christopher A. Haun, Henry Fry and Jacob Hensie or Hinshaw, were among the five executed for their actions disrupting the movement of Confederate troops and supplies into upper East Tennessee. Another of Harmon's son, Thomas, died in jail.
  • Publisher: Wikimedia Commons. This image appeared on page 319 of William G. Brownlow's Sketches of the Rise, Progress, and Decline of Secession; with a Narrative of Personal Adventures Among the Rebels (Philadelphia: George W. Childs, Applegate & Co., 1862).
  • Digital Publisher: Digital Initiatives, James E. Walker Library, Middle Tennessee State University
Detail