Henry Bruce (b. circa 1830 - d. 1916)
MSA SC 5496-050571
Enlisted with Company D, 39th Regiment,
USCT, in Montgomery County, 1864
Biography:
On March 31, 1864, Henry B. Bruce enlisted in Montgomery County, Maryland, with the newly-formed 39th Regiment, U.S.C.T., of the Maryland Volunteer Infantry.1 Muster rolls listed Bruce as the slave of Wilson Grummes (b. 1808).2 This was actually William Groomes, who lived near Unity in Montgomery County. Although Groomes did not appear on Martenet's 1865 map of the county, his farm stood next to Bushrod Gartrell's farm.3 Groomes owned two slaves in 1853 and 1855: the teenagers Josiah (b. circa 1841) and Harriet (b. circa 1839), but not Henry, who was born around 1830. In the 1860 slave census, the ages of Groomes' two slaves match the ages of Josiah and Harriet. Perhaps Groomes purchased Henry Bruce after 1860 and before 1864, when Bruce enlisted.
Henry Bruce served in Company D alongside Alfred Snowden, another soldier from Montgomery County. The 39th participated in battles that included the Siege of Petersburg, the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, and the Battle of the Crater.4 Bruce suffered a shell wound to his back on July 31, 1864,5 the day after the Battle of the Crater. Although the battle had occurred the previous day, Meade's army did not offer a flag of truce until noon on the 31st,6 so Bruce's wound earlier that day, perhaps by the continuous sniper fire,7 is entirely feasible. The possibility also exists that Bruce was wounded in the battle itself, but the wrong date was entered.
The Battle of the Crater, fought on July 30, 1864, involved the largest numbers of black troops so far assembled in the Civil War.8 Brigadier General Edward Ferrero's 4th Division (under General Burnside's 9th Corps) was comprised of the 19th, 23rd, 27th, 28th, 29th, 30th, 31st, 39th, and 43th U.S.C.T. regiments. The disastrous battle resulted in the highest casualties for African American soldiers in the entire war.9 Many of the Union casualties included disarmed, captured, and injured USCT soldiers whom Confederate soldiers massacred during and following the battle.10 The 39th Regiment, under Colonel Ozora P. Stearns, sustained thirteen killed, ninety-seven wounded, and forty-seven missing or captured—a total of one hundred and fifty-seven casualties.11 On August 6, 1864, the Baltimore Sun listed "Henry Bruch" among the wounded, although only sixty-nine were counted in the regiment as wounded at the time.12 Fortunately, Bruce survived his wound and was discharged in Washington, D.C., on May 27, 1865 under General's Order No. 77, which was "the first order issued by the War Department discharging men by reason of close of the war.”13
Rather than returning to Montgomery County after the war, Henry Bruce
lived near Adamstown in Frederick County with his wife, Sarah, who was
almost twenty years his senior (according to the census). In 1880, Bruce's
twenty-two-year-old daughter, Martha, lived with them, along with her husband,
Levi Brown. Three African American boarders also lived with the Bruces:
twelve-year-old Charles Trueman, six-year-old Ernest Whiten, and twenty-three-year-old
Walker Sims.14 In 1890, Henry Bruce received a pension for his
Civil War service.15 By 1900, he was living in Urbana with his
second wife, Amanda Ellen Bruce (maiden name unknown), whom he had married
around 1894.16 Amanda passed away in 1901,17 while
Bruce's third wife, Maria Williams, died in 1904.18 Henry Bruce
was still alive in 1910, when he was living in Buckeystown with his grandchildren
and great-grandchildren. The 1910 census noted that the widowed
Bruce had actually married four times,19 although the details
of his fourth marriage are unknown. The 1910 census marked Bruce as a Union
veteran of the Civil War. Henry Bruce died on September 26, 1916, at the
age of eight-six.20 He was interred at Point
of Rocks, a town south of Adamstown. He may have been buried at the
Point of Rocks African American Cemetery, which was established around
1879.
1. ADJUTANT GENERAL, (Muster Roll Record), 1863-1865, Colored, [MSA S343-5].
2. ADJUTANT GENERAL, (Muster
Rolls), 1864-1865, Slaves mustered into U.S. Colored Troops[MSA Citation:
MSA S936-51]. Henry Bruce, Montgomery County, Folder No. 50.
U.S. Census
Bureau (Census Record, MD) for William Grooms, Slaves, 1860, Montgomery
County, District 1, Page 8, Line 21 [MSA SM61-239, M 7230-2].
U.S. Census
Bureau (Census Record, MD) for William Groomes, 1860, Montgomery County,
District 1, Page 33, Line 21 [MSA SM61-213, M 7223-1].
3. Montgomery County District
1, Simon J. Martenet, Martenet and Bond's Map of Montgomery County, 1865,
Library of Congress, [MSA SC 1213-1-464]. Huntingfield Map Collection.
U.S.
Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for William Groomes, 1860, Montgomery
County, District 1, Page 33, Line 21 [MSA SM61-213, M 7223-1].
4. L. Allison Wilmer, J. H. Jarrett, and Geo. W. F. Vernon. History and Roster of Maryland Volunteers, War of 1861-65. Vol. 2 (Baltimore, MD: Guggenheimer, Weil & Co., 1899) 261.
5. U.S. Veteran's Schedule (Census Record, MD) for Henry Bruce, 1890, Frederick County, Jefferson District, Page 1, Line 3 [MSA SM61-359, M 28-6].
6. Richard Slotkin. No Quarter: The Battle of the Crater, 1864 (New York, NY: Random House, 2009) 304.
7. Slotkin 296.
8. "African Americans at
Petersburg." Petersburg National Battlefield. National Park Service. http://www.nps.gov/archive/pete/mahan/eduhistafam.html.
Slotkin xi.
9. Ford Risley. The
Civil War: Primary Documents on Events From 1860 to 1865 (Santa Barbara,
CA: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004) 198.
Slotkin 85.
10. John F. Schmutz. The Battle
of the Crater: A Complete History. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland
and Company, Inc., 2009. 346 and 354.
Slotkin 336
to 341.
11. Schmutz 346 and 354.
L. Allison
Wilmer, J. H. Jarrett, and Geo. W. F. Vernon. History and Roster of
Maryland Volunteers, War of 1861-65. Vol. 2 (Baltimore, MD: Guggenheimer,
Weil & Co., 1899) 261.
12. "The Fight before Petersburg: Thirty Ninth United States Colored Troops -- List of Killed, Wounded and Missing." Baltimore Sun 6 August 1864: 1. Baltimore Sun Historical Archive. Enoch Pratt Free Library.
13. William Windom, Synopsis of Treasury Decisions Under Customs and Other Laws, Vol. 23 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1891) 349.
14. U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Henry Bruce, 1880, Frederick County, District 87, Page 13, Line 6 [MSA SM61-318, M 4746-1].
15. U.S. Veteran's Schedule (Census Record, MD) for Henry Bruce, 1890, Frederick County, Jefferson District, Page 1, Line 3 [MSA SM61-359, M 28-6].
16. U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Henry Bruce, 1900, Frederick County, Urbana, District 15, Page 5, Line 21 [MSA SM61-409, M 2383-1].
17. BOARD OF HEALTH, (Death Record, Counties), 05/1901, [MSA S1178-825]. Amanda Ellen Bruce, May 25, 1901, Frederick County.
18. BOARD OF HEALTH, (Death Record, Counties), 09/1904, [MSA S1178-1742]. Maria Bruce, September 12, 1904, Frederick County.
19. U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Henry Bruce, 1910, Frederick County, Buckeystown, District 47, Page 14, Line 98 [MSA SM61-448, M 3267-2].
20. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH BUREAU OF
VITAL STATISTICS, (Death Record, Counties), 09/1916, [MSA S1179-1758].
Henry Bruce, September 25, 1916, Frederick County.
Researched and written by Rachel Frazier, 2011.
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