Civil War
Near the outbreak of the Civil War, Bruce sold all of his enterprises in the north and moved to the south. A Confederate sympathizer, Bruce attended a secession convention in Russellville, Kentucky, in November 1861, and was elected to the legislative council of the Commonwealth's Confederate shadow government. When Kentucky was admitted to the Confederacy in December 1861, Bruce was elected to one of the Commonwealth's ten congressional seats.
He personally financed many of the supply needs of Kentucky's Orphan Brigade. His work in negotiating prisoner exchanges for this unit led to his being asked to negotiate such exchanges for the entire Confederate States Army.
Near the end of the war, Bruce and Jefferson Davis fled the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia. He was later captured in Georgia, but with the end of the war, he was released and established an office in Augusta, Georgia, with the intent of helping Confederate soldiers return home. On May 10, 1865, he published an open letter offering to pay the educational expenses of any Confederate soldier who had lost an arm or leg in the war. All told, it was estimated that Bruce contributed $400,000 for the relief of Confederate soldiers. He was pardoned of any wrongdoing with regards to his support of the Southern cause by President Andrew Johnson.
Read more about this topic: Eli Metcalfe Bruce
Famous quotes related to civil war:
“They have been waiting for us in a foetor
Of vegetable sweat since civil war days,
Since the gravel-crunching, interminable departure
Of the expropriated mycologist.”
—Derek Mahon (b. 1941)