Albert C. Harrison was born around 1844 in Rumson, New Jersey, to Robert Harrison and Cornelia Dennis. His father reportedly “spent most of his life at Galveston, Texas” and died of yellow fever a few weeks before Harrison was born. He grew up and attended school in Little Silver and Eatontown, New Jersey.
Harrison enlisted in the Union army on August 14, 1862, and he mustered in as a sergeant in Company G of the 14th New Jersey Infantry on August 26. The regiment took part in the Overland Campaign, the Shenandoah Valley campaign, the siege of Petersburg, and the Appomattox campaign. He expressed devotion to the Union. In July 1863, he confessed that "it is true we see some hardship but what of that. that is nothing I am willing to suffer anything to save and restore our old Union." He celebrated the Union victory at Vicksburg and predicted that the "day is not far distant when our tattered banners will again wave in triumph over the South & North. Secession will be no more."
He was wounded in the leg at Cold Harbor and Petersburg, but according to one writer, “in neither instance did he retire from the field.” He supported President Abraham Lincoln in the election of 1864. In May 1865, he rejoiced that "there is no enemy in our front any more. they have been swept away...The great curse of slavery no longer hangs above the heads of the American People. It now may be called a free nation." He eventually earned a promotion to 1st lieutenant, and he mustered out on June 18, 1865.
He returned to New Jersey after the war, and he married Olivia Tilton on February 18, 1867. Their son John was born around 1868, and his wife died that same year. He then married Eliza Chadwick around 1872, and they had at least six children: Mary, born around 1873; Lionel, born around 1875; Albert, born around 1877; Joseph; Clinton, born around 1887; and Walter, born around 1891. They lived in Red Bank, New Jersey, and Harrison worked as a butcher. They moved to New York City in the 1870s, and he operated a carpet business there.
They returned to Red Bank around 1882, and he opened a wallpaper business. He served as town clerk of Red Bank for at least 31 years. He resigned around 1919 and received a pension from the town “as a reward for his long and faithful service.” His wife died in 1911, and he passed away in Red Bank on September 10, 1925, from a “complication of diseases.”
Image: Albert C. Harrison (The Daily Register, 16 September 1925)