Although there is no accurate record of Harrison Cox’s youth, witnesses indicate that he was a survivor of an Indian attack on a boat in the Ohio River which took his mother and father’s lives. He was raised by a family in the Chillicothe, Ohio area. Cox later married.

When the Civil War broke out, he enlisted with the Ohio 60th Infantry, which saw skirmishes leading to Harpers Ferry, W. Va. He served with General Miles at Harpers Ferry, was bayoneted and captured along with the whole garrison of nearly 16,000 Union Troops. The captured garrison was moved to Annapolis, Md. Because of his wounds, Cox was repatriated and sent to Chicago for release from the Army, with a restriction to not reenlist for two years.

Two years later, he reenlisted with the Ohio 89th Infantry. He marched with General Sherman and was again wounded in the shoulder, but remained on active duty until the end of the Civil War. He marched in the Victory Grand March in Washington, DC.

Cox returned to Ohio and eventually the family moved to Nebraska where he farmed until his death at 86 years old.