Joseph W. Harris of New Hampshire received an appointment to the Military Academy at West Point at age 17 and graduated in 1825. He was assigned to accompany a group of 750 Cherokees aboard the steamboat Yeatman. They were forced to land at Cadron on April 8, 1834, because of low water. The Cherokees were stricken with cholera, and Lt. Harris also became ill. He retired from the Army because of his poor health and died on May 18, 1837, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, at age 32.