Private Anderson Saved Others By Risking His Life During the Battle of Fort Fisher

From the January 12, 2022, WRAL News (Raleigh, North Carolina) "Tar Heel Traveler."

What really made this story interesting was that the interview was taking place at about the spot where Private Anderson and the others rushed up to cut down the palisade fence.

One of the heroes of Fort Fisher was a black man named Bruce Anderson who saved lives by rising his own and for his actions received the Medal of Honor.  January 13th marks the 157th anniversary of the start of the Second battle of Fort Fisher.

Private Bruce Anderson was a member of the 142nd New York Infantry and one of the few Blacks to enlist in an all-white regiment.  Most were in all-black regiments like the 54th Massachusetts or one of the many U.S. Colored Troops regiments.

The naval huge bombardment had opened some holes in the wooden palisade fence in front of the fort, but not all of it.  The Union troops would be impeded in their attack by that pert that remained.  So Bruce Anderson and fifteen other men volunteered to put their rifles down, grab axes and rush up to the fence to chop the rest of it down.  All this of course would be under heavy fire from the fort's Confederate defenders.

And, Bruce Anderson was but a teenager when he did this.

Years later, he received the nation's highest military honor, the Medal of Honor.  There were not many black Medal of Honor recipients during the war.

He lived to be 77 and died in 1922.  He was buried in New York.

Quite the Hero.  --Old Secesh