Alexander Harris (July 19th, 1818 - October 9th, 1909) Musician/Private, Company C, 1st (Olmstead's) Georgia Infantry C. S. A. Past Grand Master Alexander Harris was (born July 19, 1818, in Savannah, Georgia as a Free man. He was a deacon, trustee, and interim pastor of First Bryan Baptist Church and one of the most powerful black religious and civil leaders in Savannah during the end of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth century. He was a free man all of his life. He lived in Augusta as a young man and worked as a blacksmith there. He was conscripted into the Confederate Army during the Civil War and served as a member of the Republican Blues drum and bugle corps. He has the Southern Cross of the Confederate States of America at his gravesite. He was with Reverend Garrison Frazier and the other nineteen black ministers who met with Edwin Stanton, Secretary of War, and General William T. Sherman on January 12, 1865, at the Green-Meldrim Mansion, which resulted in Sherman issuing Special Field Order No. 15, historically known as Forty Acres and a Mule, on January 16, 1865, from the field of Savannah. Harris founded First Bryan Baptist Church on West Board and Waldburg Streets in 1873, the Mount Olive Baptist Association in 1872, and he was the pastor of historic Nicolsonboro Baptist Church for many years. Harris, with James Simms, Reverend E.K. Love, J.H .C. Butler, James Ross, John McIntosh, and others helped to bring Georgia State Industrial College to Savannah in 1891. He was one of the oldest Masons in Georgia and was among the first persons to be initiated in Eureka Lodge No. 1 of Savannah on February 4, 1866. (Savannah Tribune, October 16, 1909). Bro. Harris served as Junior Deacon of Eureka Lodge No. 11 presently Eureka No. 1, in 1866. He served as Senior Deacon of the Lodge in 1867. In 1868 he was the Junior Warden. In 1869-1870 Bro. Harris served as Senior Warden. Bro. Harris was Worshipful Master for Eureka No. 1 in 1871. Bro. Harris was Grand Master of the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge Free and Accepted Masons of Georgia (Colored) now the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Mason for the Jurisdiction of Georgia from June 1883 to June 1886. This information is courtesy of Joe Snow, Grand Historian, Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Georgia. https://www.findagrave.com/memo.../95939962/alexander-harris Included with this post is his Confederate military record and a newspaper article mentioning him from the Savannah Daily Republican dated July 11th, 1861.
