Robert H. Harrison
| Robert Harrison | |
|---|---|
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| Personal details | |
| Born | 1745 Charles County, Maryland, British America |
| Died | 2 April 1790 (aged 44–45) Charles County, Maryland, U.S. |
| Political party | Federalist |
Robert Hanson Harrison (1745 – April 2, 1790) was an American jurist.
Born in Charles County, Maryland, Robert Hanson Harrison was the son of Colonel Richard Harrison and Dorothy Hanson Harrison. Little is known of his life before his removal to Northern Virginia, where he studied law and married. By 1769, he was a working attorney and subsequently met and represented George Washington on several legal matters in the years before the American Revolutionary War. Harrison supported the Virginia Nonimportation Resolves in 1770 and served as the clerk for the Fairfax Resolves in 1774. Additionally, he served as an officer in the Fairfax Independent Company in 1774 & 1775, and was appointed Major of the Fairfax County militia in September of 1775.
On November 6, 1775, Robert Hanson Harrison was appointed an aide-de-camp to General Washington. The following May, Harrison was appointed military secretary to General Washington in lieu of Joseph Reed. The Continental Congress approved to grant him at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel on June 5, 1776. In this capacity, he assisted with the drafting, writing and organization of the Commander-in-Chief’s voluminous correspondence for almost five years. Moreover, President James Monroe testified that “in all the actions in which General Washington commanded, Colonel Harrison was present, near the person of the General.” Along with Alexander Hamilton, Robert Hanson Harrison negotiated for the exchange of prisoners of war. The death of his father, Richard Harrison, in 1780 began a chain of events that led to Robert Hanson Harrison's resignation from the Continental Army in the spring of 1781. George Washington attested that Robert Hanson Harrison discharged his duty “with conspicuous abilities – That his whole conduct during all the interesting periods of the war has been distinguished marked by the strictest integrity and the most attentive & faithful services while by personal bravery he has marked his conduct upon many occasions been distinguished on sev[era]l occasions”
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