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Horace Edward. Bright, a youngster from Annapolis, Maryland, ran away from home when only fifteen years of age, and enlisted in the Third Maryland Battalion-Infantry, Veteran Volunteers, under Captain Joseph F. Carter during the latter years of the war. He participated in many engagements during the time he was a member of the Third Maryland, including the following engagements:
Wilderness, Virginia, May 6th, 1864
Spottsylvania, Virginia, May 12th, 1864
North Anne, Virginia, May 22nd, 1864
Cold Harbor, Virginia, June 24, 1864
Petersburg, Virginia, June 17th, 1864
Fort Steadman, Virginia, March 25th, 1865
It was during the siege at Petersburg, Virginia on July 2, 1864 where he was severely wounded by a rifle ball through his right lung. He survived his serious wound and was relocated to the 420 bed Stanton Hospital in Washington, D.C. where he was confined for several weeks. Perhaps he was lucky enough to have met the famous poet Walt Whitman or other famous Washingtonians during their many visits to the sick and wounded soldiers in Washington area hospitals during the civil war. He was later relocated to the U. S. Naval Academy Hospital in his hometown of Annapolis, Maryland to continue his recovery (the hospital at the Naval Academy location was operated by the Army during that time, as the Naval Academy had been relocated to Newport, Rhode Island during the Civil War). It is likely his family was able to visit and help care for him during his stay here. Before his complete recovery he left to rejoin his unit for the remainder of the war. The date he returned to his regiment is not known; however, it is likely he missed the infamous Mine Explosion at Petersburg on July 30, 1864 that was chronicled in a movie production in recent years. The last major battle in which they participated was at Fort Steadman, which was Lee's desperate and unsuccessful attempt to break the stranglehold at Petersburg in March, 1865. Shortly thereafter Lee fled Petersburg and began the march which would end at Appomattox Court House. The Third Maryland moved to City Point, Virginia April 20-24 and to Alexandria, Virginia April 26-28, 1865. They participated in the Grand Review of Union Troops, a massive pageant of marching troops through downtown Washington, D.C. on May 23, 1865, where it is said that Pennsylvania Avenue was alive with the magnificent sight of the returning armies. Their final duty was in the Washington, D.C. area wrapping up their final weeks of service guarding the railway lines between Laurel and Hyattsville, until disbanded on July 31, 1865. Horace Edward Bright was honorably discharged from service on July 31, 1865. It is interesting to note that his regiment, like most at those times, lost more to illness than to casualties of battle due to deplorable sanitary conditions of the time. The Third Maryland lost 8 Officers and 83 Enlisted men killed and mortally wounded in battle and 4 Officers and 130 Enlisted men by disease, for a total of 225. The regiment never lost their colors, and five members received the Congressional Medal of Honor.
This civil war veteran, my great-granduncle, who never married, died early in the morning of January 5, 1897, at the residence of his father, John Henry Bright, Sr. (my second great-grandfather), 26 Market Space, Annapolis, Maryland. He was one of 11 children, a brother of Annapolis City Alderman John Henry Bright, Jr., and was always an active Democrat. He had been ill for some time, suffering from the complications of several diseases, with consumption (tuberculosis was called consumption in the day because it seemed to consume people from within, with a bloody cough, fever, pallor or abnormal loss of skin color, and long relentless wasting) being the immediate cause of death. Horace Edward. Bright was buried in St. Anne’s Cemetery, Annapolis, Maryland.
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CSA