Peter Bruner

Peter Bruner
Peter Bruner with his wife, about 1919.
Born	1845 Clark County, Winchester, Kentucky
Died	April 6, 1938 (aged 93) Oxford, Ohio
Occupation	Slave, Soldier, Custodian, Author
Known for	A Slave's Adventures Toward Freedom Not a Fiction, but the True Story of a Struggle
Spouse(s)	Frances Procton

Peter Bruner (1845–April 6, 1938), was born a slave in Kentucky. He escaped enslavement to join the Union Army during the Civil War. After the war, he married and raised a family in Ohio. Collaborating with his daughter, he published his autobiography.

Bruner was born in 1845 in Winchester, Clark County, Kentucky. His mother had three children, including Peter, and would fight with her master John Bell Bruner over her children. Peter's father was his master.

When Bruner was about 10 years old John Bell Bruner was offered $800 for Peter, but told the man that "he was growing into money" and before long would be worth $200 more than that. He was removed from his mother at a young age and worked as a tanner; He was also hired out to work for others. Bruner was beaten and tried to escape many times, having endured "extreme physical violence and psychological deprivation". The sister of his owner threatened that: "she wanted to buy me for the sole purpose of whipping me; she said if she could whip me and break me in she could stop me from running off."

On July 25, 1864, after numerous attempts, he escaped slavery and joined the Union Army as a free man at Camp Nelson in Kentucky, serving in Company C of the 12th Regiment Heavy Artillery U.S. Colored Troops, as part of the United States Colored Troops.

During his initial attempt to join the army in August 1863, he had been told it was a "white man's war." Kentucky was the last state to accept African-American men into their army. In February 1864 there were 400 men who wanted to enlist and Col. Andrew H. Clark began enlisting them. By June of that year there were 1,500 enlisted colored soldiers. On June 13, 1864, restrictions were lifted requiring men to be free or have their owner's written permission to engage in the war. From that point forward, anyone that enlisted was emancipated.

Bruner described the events of his second, successful attempt to enlist in his book A Slave’s Adventures Toward Freedom: "The next morning about five o’clock I had gone twenty-one miles and had arrived at Richmond. After I had left Richmond I came upon sixteen colored fellows who were on their way to Camp Nelson and of course I did not get lonesome. Just a half hour before sundown we arrived at Camp Nelson and had come forty-one miles in that day. The officers asked me what I wanted there and I told them that I came there to fight the rebels and that I wanted a gun."