ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: The 12th USCHA was organized at Camp Nelson, Kentucky, July, 1864. The 9th USCHA was organized at Clarksville and Nashville, Tennessee, October 1864.
Both men are resting in the Woodside Cemetery, Oxford, Ohio.
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Peter Bruner served in Company C, 12th Regiment, U.S. Colored Heavy
Artillery.
Peter Bruner was born in 1845 in Winchester, Ky. His father was his
slavemaster. He was separated from his mother at an early age. Worked
as a tanner while a slave. He ran away many times and, of course, was
beaten. He joined the Union army; served and was mustered out. He went
to Oxford, Ohio because he had relatives there named Brassfield. He met
Frances Procton, daughter of a free farmer (Black). They had four
daughters, one of whom was my great grandmother (maternal). Peter
Bruner wrote a book about his life entitled A Slave's Adventures Toward
Freedom. He worked as a laborer most of his life. For a time, he was
employed by Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. He passed in 1938.Richard Burns served in Company C, 9th Regiment, U.S. Colored Heavy Artillery
Richard Burns was born free to Daniel and Marian Burns in Morning Sun,
Ohio, near Oxford, Ohio. He was Oxford's first Black Council man,
around 1886, (Reconstruction). He was a Shakespeare buff. He was also a
stone mason. My mother remembers him as sitting in a chair in his front
yard. He always wore white shirts with stiff starched collars and spoke
with crisp diction. He married Della James, but I do not recall the
date. It is in another file. He had two sons and a daughter. His son,
Cephas, also a stone mason, was my great grandfather. Richard Burns
passed in 1919.