Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Restrictions to Use

No usage restrictions.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the William Curry Harllee Papers, #1550, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from General and Mrs. William Curry Harllee of Washington, D.C., November 1948.

Additional Descriptive Resources

A copy of the original finding aid for this collection is filed in folder 1a.

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: SHC Staff

Encoded by: Noah Huffman, December 2007

Updated by: Kate Stratton and Jodi Berkowitz, November 2009

This collection was rehoused and a summary created with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This finding aid was created with support from NC ECHO.

Diacritics and other special characters have been omitted from this finding aid to facilitate keyword searching in web browsers.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Confederate States of America. Army. South Carolina Infantry Regiment, 8th.
• Florida--Genealogy.
• Harllee family.
• Harllee, Andrew Turpin, fl. 1853-1879.
• Harllee, William Curry, 1877-1944.
• Little Rock (S.C.)--History.
• Mars Bluff (S.C.)--History.
• National Rifle Association of America--History.
• North Carolina--Genealogy.
• Soldiers--Confederate States of America--Correspondence.
• South Carolina--Genealogy.
• United States--Politics and government--1857-1861.
• United States. Marine Corps--History--World War, 1914-1918.
• United States. Marine Corps--Officers--History--20th century.
• United States. Navy--History--World War, 1914-1918.
• Virginia--Genealogy.
• Washington (D.C.)--Social life and customs.

William Curry Harllee (1877-1944) was a United States Marine Corps officer from South Carolina. Harllee was born in Manatee, Fla., to John Waddell and Mary Ellen Curry Harllee. His parents died when he was young and he lived with relatives in South Carolina and was educated there. He also studied at Oak Ridge Military Institute, Oak Ridge, N.C.; the Citadel, Charleston, S.C.; and the University of North Carolina, before entering the United States Military Academy at West Point, Md. After two years at West Point, Harllee served as a private and non-commissioned officer in the 33rd United States Volunteer Infantry, Philippine Insurrection. In 1900 he was commissioned 2nd lieutenant, United States Marine Corps, and became a career officer, advancing to the rank of colonel at his retirement in 1935, and to brigadier general in 1942.

As a Marine Corps officer Harllee was especially interested in training and marksmanship. He obtained the qualification Expert Rifleman; was captain of the Marine Corps Rifel Teams, National Matches, 1908-1910; commanded rifle instruction camps at Sea Girt, N.J., 1908-1910; constructed and commanded Marine Corps Rifle Range, Winthrop, Md., 1910-1911; was assistant director of Gunnery Exercises and Engineering Performances (in charge of Small Arms Section), Navy Department, 1914-1920; in charge of rifle practice, United States Atlantic Fleet, Guantanamo, Cuba, 1915; and directed construction and operation of rifle ranges operated by the Navy Department for all services during World War I. He was director and vice president of the National Rifle Association, and a member of the National Board for Rifle Practice for several years. He was also the author of Navy Small Arms Firing Regulations, 1914, and of manuals of instruction.

At Quantico, Va., 1919-1920, Harllee established the Marine Corps Institute for educational and vocational training, moved it to the Marine Barracks, Washington, D.C., and served as director of the Marine Barracks, director of the Marine Corps Institute, and chief of Educational Section, Headquarters, United States Marine Corps, 1920-1921.

During these years Harllee also served in China, Cuba, Vera Cruz, Santo Domingo, and Haiti, at various naval stations in the United States, and on several naval vessels. After he left the Naval War College, Newport, R.I., in 1928, he commanded the Marine Barracks, Navy Yard, Norfolk, Va.; was Fleet Marine Officer on the United States flagship Texas; and from 1930 until his retirement in 1935 was commander of the Southern Reserve Area and Southern Recruiting Division, United States Marine Corps, with headquarters in New Orleans, La.

While in New Orleans, Harllee did the major preparation of Kinfolks a genealogical work in which he included both his own and his wife's ancestry.

Harllee married Ella Florence Fulmore, daughter of Zachary Taylor Fulmore of Austin, Tex., in 1903. They had two children, John, who graduated from the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md., and became a naval officer, and Ella Fulmore, who attended school in Washington, D.C., and apparently lived there with her parents through 1944. Harllee bought a house in Washington where his wife maintained their home while he was on duty elsewhere. When he retired in 1935, he planned to live in Dillon, S.C., and did go there briefly. He ran for the United States Senate against James F. Byrnes in the South Carolina primary election in 1936 as an anti-New Deal Democrat, but was defeated. Following the campaign he was ill in the Naval Hospital in Washington, and lived in Washington thereafter until his death in 1944.

The collection contains papers of and collected by William Curry Harllee including letters and documents, 1685-1899 (in part copies) of his ancestors, particularly the Harllee family of Mars Bluff and Little Rock, S.C., including a few letters from a South Carolinian in Kansas, 1853; letters from Andrew Turpin Harllee describing public events in Washington, D.C., in 1860; and letters from a soldier in the 8th South Carolina Regiment, Confederate States of America, in Virginia. From 1903 to 1918, the papers concern W. C. Harllee's military career, particularly his interest in marksmanship, the National Rifle Association, and his duties in small arms training for the Navy and Marine Corps during World War I. Papers from 1919 relate to his interest in genealogy and preparation of a book of his findings. The families in which he was interested were based in North and South Carolina, Florida, and Virginia. There are also some letters, 1935-1936, that relate to Harllee's campaign for the Democratic senatorial primary in South Carolina and photostat and printed copies of a map of Marion County, S.C.