George E. Harris

George Emrick Harris (January 6, 1827 – March 19, 1911) was an American lawyer, Civil War veteran and politician who served two terms as a U.S. Representative from Mississippi from 1870 to 1873.

Early life
George Emrick Harris was born on January 6, 1827, in Orange County, North Carolina. He moved to Tennessee and later Mississippi. He attended common schools and studied law. He was admitted to the bar in 1854.

Career
Harris practiced law. He entered the Confederate States Army and served as lieutenant colonel until the close of the Civil War.

Political career
Harris was elected district attorney in 1865 and re-elected in 1866. Upon the readmission of the Mississippi to representation in the Union, he was elected as a Republican to the Forty-first and Forty-second Congresses and served from February 23, 1870, to March 3, 1873.

He served as the first Republican Mississippi Attorney General from 1873 to 1877. He was Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi from 1877 to 1879.

He wrote books on legal subjects.

Death and burial
Harris married Harriet Seton McAllister, daughter of Ward McAllister. They had seven children, including George McAllister. His wife predeceased him.

Harris died on March 19, 1911, in Washington, D.C. At the time of his death, he lived at the Ruppert Home for the Aged and Indigent. He was interred in Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington, D.C.