John A. Bross
John A. Bross | |
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Born | Milford, Pennsylvania | February 21, 1826
Died | July 30, 1864 Petersburg, Virginia | (aged 38)
Allegiance | ![]() Union |
Service/ | United States Army Union Army |
Years of service | 1862-1864 |
Rank | Colonel |
Unit | 88th Illinois Infantry 29th Colored Infantry |
Battles/wars | Battle of Perryville Battle of Stones River Battle of Chickamauga Battle of the Crater |
Memorials | Rosehill Cemetery cenotaph |
Spouse(s) | Isabella (Belle) Mason |
Children | Cora Bross Mason Bross |
Signature | ![]() |
John Armstrong Bross (February 21, 1826 – July 30, 1864) was a Colonel in the
Early life and career
Son of Deacon Moses Bross and Jane (Winfield) Bross, John Bross was born in 1826 in
American Civil War
Enlisting in the War on August 22, 1862, John Bross raised two companies for the 88th Illinois Regiment and enlisted as captain in one of them. On September 8, 1862, the Chicago Tribune reported a ceremony at the Third Presbyterian Church where the Sunday school students presented a sword to John. The 88th Illinois was sent to Kentucky in September 1862 to join the Army of the Cumberland under
John‘s army first trained for a month in Washington, D.C. during May 1864, before joining Grant’s army as it moved south to Petersburg, the supply town for Richmond, Virginia. His regiment was assigned to the Fourth Division of General Ambrose Burnside’s corps which consisted of nine African American regiments.
The siege of Petersburg was the first modern example of trench warfare, and was used 50 years later in World War I. The explosion in the 510-foot tunnel, some 20 feet down and not detected by the Confederates, was set to go off on Saturday, July 30 at 3:15 in the morning to be followed by the colored troops going through the breach, fanning out to the sides and then charging up to a hill beyond. The following soldiers would then invade the town. But before the explosion, General George Meade announced that he would not use the colored troops to lead the attack, causing much last-minute confusion. The explosion went off at 4:45 am, an hour late. Finally, at 7:30 a.m. as the battle stalled, the colored troops were ordered to go in. At 8:45, John Bross, in full-dress uniform, grabbed the colors of his regiment, climbed on the parapet, and said, “The man who saves these colors shall be promoted”. He was shot just afterwards, and neither flag nor its bearer were ever returned from the battlefield.[2] Of the 400 men who followed Bross into battle, only 128 came back.[3] Afterwards, General Grant said that these black troops should have been allowed to lead the charge. After John’s death there were many tributes to him at a special meeting of the Chicago Bar Association.[4] When veterans from the 29th Colored Regiment formed a chapter of the Grand Army of the Republic in Springfield, Illinois in 1886, they named it the John Bross Post in honor of their fallen colonel.[5]
Personal life
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2a/Cenotaph_of_John_Armstrong_Bross_%281826%E2%80%931864%29_at_Rosehill_Cemetery%2C_Chicago_1.jpg/150px-Cenotaph_of_John_Armstrong_Bross_%281826%E2%80%931864%29_at_Rosehill_Cemetery%2C_Chicago_1.jpg)
In 1856 he married Isabella Annetta Mason, called Belle, who had moved to Chicago from Sterling, Illinois and had been a student of John’s when he was a Sunday school teacher. They had a daughter Cora in 1857 and a son Mason in 1860. Cora died in 1861, probably one of the many child victims of the unsanitary water sources in Chicago at that time. John eulogized Cora in a poem he wrote. During the Civil War, Belle moved back to Sterling to live with her family, and corresponded frequently with her husband on the battlefront. Belle and their little son Mason were present at the Chicago railroad station to see John off to Washington, DC and would never see him again. After his death, Belle received many letters from his troops including Private Willis Bogart who wrote in part: “He was loved by everyone, because he was a friend to everyone”.
His great grandson John A. Bross of Chicago, along with his sister Justine Bross Yildiz, chronicled his life and heroic death at the head of his troops in Letters to Belle, containing 87 letters between September 1862 and July 1864 that Colonel Bross wrote home to his wife while away fighting at several of the Civil War’s most important battles recalling not only these battles but insightful portraits of the everyday life of a soldier.
His body was never recovered from the battlefield, but there is a
See also
References
- ^
Bross, John; Yildiz, Justine (August 9, 2018). Letters to Belle: Civil War Letters and Life of Chicago Lawyer and Volunteer Colonel John A. Bross, 29th U.S. Colored Infantry. Independently published. ISBN 978-1983368905.
- ^ Ankrom, Reg (February 23, 2014). ""Quincy organized black regiment for Civil War"". Historical Society of Quincy & Adams County. Retrieved December 9, 2020.
- ^ Wallace, Matt (October 31, 2018). ""No Quarter Expected, No Quarter Given: The Brutal Experience of Black Virginians in Blue at the Battle of the Crater and Beyond"". John L. Nau III Center for Civil War History. University of Virginia. Retrieved December 9, 2020.
- ^ Swazey, A., Bross, J. A., & Chicago Bar Association. (1865). Memorial of Colonel John A. Bross, Twenty-ninth U.S. colored troops: Who fell in leading the assault on Petersburgh, July 30, 1864. Chicago: Tribune Book and Job Office.
- ^ ""John A. Bross Post, Grand Army of the Republic"". History of Sangamon County, Illinois. May 11, 2015. Retrieved December 9, 2020.