Medal of Honor for Fort Fisher Action

Bruce Anderson of Fulton County, New York, was a member of the 142nd New York Infantry, Company K. That gave him the unusual distinction of being an African-American soldier serving in a white Civil War regiment. Having earned the Medal of Honor for his actions during the Jan. 15, 1865 infantry assault on Fort Fisher (”Voluntarily advanced with the head of the column and cut down the palisading”), he had to hire a lawyer to get the decoration. It was conferred on Dec. 28, 1914. He lived in Amsterdam, N.Y. after the war, married twice and had children by both marriages. He died in 1922 and is buried in Amsterdam.