Bruinsburg, Mississippi

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Bruinsburg, Mississippi
Map of Mississippi River showing Grand Gulf, Mississippi and Bruinsburg, Mississippi (1840).jpg
1840 map of Mississippi River showing Grand Gulf, Bruinsburg, and Rodney
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Bruinsburg
Location of Bruinsburg
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Bruinsburg
Bruinsburg (the United States)
Coordinates: 31°56′33″N91°09′26″W / 31.94250°N 91.15722°W / 31.94250; -91.15722
Country Flag of the United States.svg  United States
State Flag of Mississippi.svg  Mississippi
County Claiborne
Elevation
24 m (79 ft)
Time zone UTC-6 (Central (CST))
  Summer (DST) UTC-5 (CDT)
GNIS feature ID691732 [1]

Bruinsburg is an extinct settlement in Claiborne County, Mississippi, United States. [1] Founded when the Natchez District was part of West Florida, the settlement was one of the end points of the Natchez Trace land route from Nashville to the lower Mississippi River valley.

Contents

It was located on the south bank of Bayou Pierre, 3.0 mi (4.8 km) east of the Mississippi River. The town's port, Bruinsburg Landing, was located directly on the Mississippi River, just south of the mouth of the Bayou Pierre.

Once an important commercial and military location, nothing remains today of the town or its port. [2]

History

Bruinsburg is named for Peter Bryan Bruin, who emigrated from Ireland to Virginia in 1756, and later fought as a lieutenant during the American Revolution. Following the war, Bruin's father received 1,200 acres (490 ha) of land in Mississippi in a grant from Don Diego de Gardoqui, a Spanish minister who controlled what was then Spanish West Florida. Peter Bruin's family, along with 12 other families, moved there in 1778. The land grant required the settlers to survey the land, clear trees, build cabins, and plant crops. The settlers were soon growing corn, cotton, tobacco, indigo, fruits and vegetables. Lake Bruin, an oxbow lake across the river in Louisiana and the main feature of Lake Bruin State Park, is also named for Peter Bruin.

The community was a lively Mississippi River port, and future U.S. President Andrew Jackson set up a trading post there during the 1790s. [2] Bruinsburg was where Jackson worked as a slave trader, receiving coffles sent down the Natchez Trace from Nashville, selling in both the Natchez District and forwarding some people on to New Orleans when the time and price were right. [3]

After the southern United States became an American possession, Bruin was appointed a judge. In 1807, former Vice-President Aaron Burr, who at the time was wanted on a charge of treason, visited Bruin while fleeing federal agents.

There was a cotton gin and farmland at Bruinsburg in 1822, when two boatmen stopped there on the way down from Cincinnati. One of the boatmen recorded in his journal, "...after some enquiry we got lodging with one Mr. Foot who appeared to have the charge of a cotton gin owned by Evans at a settlement called Bruinsburg. Foot informed me that Judge Bruins the former owner of the farm had laid out considerable of a town here & sold the lots at auction but the purchasers neglecting to enter their claims it returned back to the proprietor who sold it to the present owner & purchased a farm adjacent. Met three Boats going up the Buyo [bayou] loaded with various kinds of provision such as, flour, lard, butter, corn, venison, potatoes, pork, &c." [4] One "R Brasher...quite hearty & rugged" lived "near Bruinsburgh at the mouth of Buyo Pierre..." at that time. [5]

In 1841, Rice C. Ballard was the trustee selling the 2,300-acre Bruinsburg plantation in Claiborne County and over 100 slaves (including 23 children under age eight) "to pay three promissory notes owed Rowan & Harris. [6] By 1848 it was noted in a river guide for steamboat people as only a "small place, on the lower side of Bayou Pierre." [7]

Civil War

Union Army General Ulysses S. Grant was planning a massive assault on the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg, Mississippi. After having failed to land his army at Grand Gulf, Mississippi, he arrived on April 29, 1863, at Disharoon's Plantation in Louisiana, about 5 mi (8.0 km) north of Bruinsburg on the opposite bank of the Mississippi River. Grant made a plan to land his troops at Rodney, Mississippi, about 12 mi (19 km) downstream, until late that night, an escaped slave told Grant about the much nearer port of Bruinsburg, which had an excellent steamboat landing, and a good road ascending the bluffs east of the river.

The following day, 17,000 Union soldiers began landing at Bruinsburg, marking the beginning of the Battle of Port Gibson, part of the larger Vicksburg Campaign. Because river traffic had diminished through the war, when the soldiers arrived at Bruinsburg the port was nearly deserted, and the sole witness to the invasion was a farmer who appeared too confused to flee. The port proved to have a good solid bank, and space for many boats. It was the largest amphibious operation in American military history until the Allied invasion of Normandy.

When this was accomplished I felt a degree of relief scarcely ever equaled since. Vicksburg was not yet taken it is true...but, I was on dry ground on the same side of the river with the enemy.

Ulysses S. Grant, [8] :105

The soldiers moved east along the dusty wagon trails from Bruinsburg, and then rested under the trees of the nearby Windsor Plantation. That evening, they began their march north.

20th and 21st centuries

Bruinsburg, Mississippi post office circa 1913 Bruinsburg, Mississippi post office circa 1913 03.jpg
Bruinsburg, Mississippi post office circa 1913

There was still a boat landing and a post office at Bruinsburg circa 1913. [9]

The former town and its landing are now located on private property. A historic plaque commemorating Bruinsburg is located on Church Street in Port Gibson. [2] [10] [11] [12]

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The Battle of Port Gibson was fought between a Union Army commanded by Major General Ulysses S. Grant and a reinforced Confederate States Army division led by Major General John S. Bowen. Though the outnumbered Confederate soldiers fought stubbornly, they were steadily pressed back during the day by Major General John A. McClernand's troops. Bowen eventually conceded the field by withdrawing north toward Vicksburg, Mississippi. The battle occurred near Port Gibson, Mississippi, during the Vicksburg Campaign of the American Civil War.

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The Battle of Grand Gulf was fought on April 29, 1863, during the American Civil War. Union Army forces commanded by Major General Ulysses S. Grant had failed several times to bypass or capture the Confederate-held city of Vicksburg, Mississippi, during the Vicksburg campaign. Grant decided to move his army south of Vicksburg, cross the Mississippi River, and then advance on the city. A Confederate Army division under Brigadier General John S. Bowen prepared defenses—Forts Wade and Cobun—at Grand Gulf, Mississippi, south of Vicksburg. To clear the way for a Union crossing, seven Union Navy ironclad warships from the Mississippi Squadron commanded by Admiral David Dixon Porter bombarded the Confederate defenses at Grand Gulf on April 29. Union fire silenced Fort Wade and killed its commander, but the overall Confederate position held. Grant decided to cross the river elsewhere.

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The Battle of Goodrich's Landing, Louisiana, was fought on June 29 and June 30, 1863, between Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War. The Confederates attacked several Union regiments, who were composed mostly of black soldiers, in an attempt to disrupt the campaign at Vicksburg, Mississippi.

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References

  1. 1 2 "Bruinsburg, Mississippi". Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
  2. 1 2 3 Weiser, Kathy (March 2012). "Bruinsburg to Port Gibson in the Vicksburg Campaign". Legends of America.
  3. Forman, Samuel (2021). Ill-fated frontier: peril and possibilities in the early American West. Guilford, Connecticut: Lyons Press. ISBN   978-1-4930-4462-7.
  4. Klett (1943), p. 177.
  5. Klett (1943), p. 178.
  6. "Trustee's Sale". Mississippi Free Trader (Advertisement). April 8, 1841. p. 4. Retrieved 2024-07-04.
  7. "Conclin's new river guide, or, A gazetteer of all the towns on the western waters : containing sketches of the cities, towns, and countries bordering on the ..." HathiTrust. p. 102. Retrieved 2024-07-13.
  8. Bearss, Edwin C. (2010). Receding Tide: Vicksburg and Gettysburg, the Campaigns that Changed the Civil War. National Geographic Books. ISBN   9781426205101.
  9. "National Archives NextGen Catalog". catalog.archives.gov. Retrieved 2024-07-07.
  10. Grabau, Warren (2000). Ninety-Eight Days: A Geographer's View of the Vicksburg Campaign. University of Tennessee Press. ISBN   9781572330689.
  11. "Bruinsburg Crossing (April 30-May 1)". National Park Service. Retrieved 2016-11-14.
  12. "Bruinsburg". Markeroni. Archived from the original on 2016-03-11. Retrieved 2016-11-14.

Sources