Name: Harris J. Barton
Unit: 35th Maine
Age: 26
Height: 6’1”
Weight: 185 lbs
Handedness: Right
Birthplace: Lewiston, Maine

Physical Description: Tall, more stocky than, but not as strong as, his younger brother. Curly dark brown hair. Dark brown eyes. Well-kept beard and mustache. Pensive. Newly married to his childhood sweetheart, Sarah Elizabeth ("Lizzie") Smithfield.

Clothing: Uniform.

Background: Grew up with a younger brother, several cousins and two much younger sisters. Did some hunting and fishing in the North Woods with his brother, but preferred to read, write and study. Father was a constable in Lewiston, Maine. Mother was a school teacher and had a small garden at home. Enjoyed helping his mom with gardening, but was not born to be a farmer.

Lewiston, a small but growing town (designated a city in 1863), did not yet have a local newspaper. But Harris, and his weekly one page flyer, was the closest thing the city had to a local reporter and newspaper for the past year. He would write up weekly one-page reports on things going on in town - focused on any arrests or crime provided by his father, the Constable, events of interest at the local college, just renamed Bates College in 1864, and local politics covering the city’s first Mayor, Jacob Barker Ham, elected in 1863.

Harris married Lizzie, whose father ran one of the town’s larger mills, in summer of 1864. After just 2 months of marriage however, Harris had to report to boot camp, even though the Civil War was starting to turn for the Union, more soldiers were needed to bring the war to an end.