Horatio Washington Bruce

Horatio Bruce was born February 22, 1830, about one mile south of Vanceburg in Lewis County, Kentucky. He was the son of Alexander and Amanda (Bragg) Bruce and named for two of his uncles, Horatio and Washington Bruce. His paternal grandfather was a soldier in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, and his father was a wealthy landowner who served as a Whig in the Kentucky General Assembly in 1825 and 1826. His maternal grandfather also served in the Revolutionary War. Concurrently, he was postmaster of the post office in Vanceburg. In 1849, Bruce taught at a school in Vanceburg for a five-month term. The following year, he taught for five months in another school in Lewis County. In December 1850, he relocated to Flemingsburg, where he read law in the office of Leander M. Cox. He was admitted to the bar in July 1851 and opened his practice in Flemingsburg. Later that year, he was appointed examiner by the circuit court of Fleming county, and soon after was elected to the Flemingsburg Board of School Trustees. ==Antebellum political career==

Bruce first became active in politics in 1852, making campaign speeches for the Whig presidential ticket of Winfield Scott and William Alexander Graham in the 1852 election. In August 1856, Bruce was elected Commonwealth's Attorney for the Tenth District, comprising Mason, Lewis, Greenup, Rowan, Fleming and Nicholas counties. He held this position until 1858. In late 1858, he resigned his position as Commonwealth's Attorney and moved to Louisville. There, he formed the law firm of Helm and Bruce with his brother-in-law, Benjamin Hardin Helm. During the 1860 presidential election, Bruce actively supported the Constitutional Union ticket of John Bell and Edward Everett. In 1861, he adopted a states' rights platform and unsuccessfully sought a seat in the United States House of Representatives, losing to Robert Mallory. ==Civil War==

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Bruce sided with the Confederacy and left Louisville for Bowling Green, the headquarters of the state's Confederates, on August 17, 1861. On January 10, 1864, he was re-elected to the Second Confederate Congress, serving until the end of the war. Records of his service in the Confederate Congresses have been lost to history. Bruce and the other members of the Confederate Congress – along with President Davis – remained in Richmond, Virginia, until April 2, 1865. They then fled to Danville, Virginia, where they remained until Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House. Afterward, Bruce traveled first to Greensboro, North Carolina, and Augusta, Georgia, before returning to Richmond after President Andrew Johnson declared amnesty for ex-Confederates. Bruce then traveled to Washington, D.C. where he arranged a meeting with his close friend and fellow Kentuckian, Attorney General James Speed. Speed informed Bruce that he had been granted a pardon for any actions of disloyalty during the war. ==Post-war life==

Bruce returned to Louisville June 19, 1865, and in August 1865, formed the law firm of Bruce and Russell with Samuel Russell, his former pupil. They dissolved the partnership in 1868 when Bruce was elected to the circuit court in Kentucky's ninth district, comprising Jefferson, Oldham, Shelby, Spencer, and Bullitt counties. Bruce died on January 22, 1903, in Louisville. He is buried in Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky. ==References==