Samuel E. Bryant was born around 1838 in Pennsylvania to Walter and Margaret Bryant. His father was a mason and farmer who owned $400 of real estate and $750 of personal property by 1860. He grew up and attended school in Dyberry, Pennsylvania, and by 1860, he was also working as a mason.

 

He enlisted in the Union army in May 1861, and he mustered in as a sergeant in the 35^th Pennsylvania Infantry. The regiment took part in the Seven Days’ Battles, the Second Battle of Manassas, the Battle of Antietam, the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Battle of Gettysburg, and the Overland Campaign. He was promoted to 2^nd lieutenant in April 1863. He expressed devotion to the Union, writing that “nothing but ‘Amor Patrie’ persuaded me to sacrifice the comforts of life, notwithstanding a pleasant home and many kind friends.”

 

Confederates captured him during the Battle of Yellow Tavern in May 1864 and imprisoned him at Libby Prison and Danville Prison. In June 1864, he was promoted to 1^st lieutenant in Company G of the 191st Pennsylvania Infantry. The regiment took part in the siege of Petersburg and the Appomattox campaign. He was promoted to captain on April 24, 1865, and he resigned on June 19, 1865.

 

He settled in Texas, Pennsylvania, after the war, and he resumed his work as a brick mason. He married a woman named Samantha around 1865, and they had at least six children: Wellington, born around 1867; Carrie, born around 1869; Maggie, born around 1872; Edward, born around 1875; Minnie, born around 1878; and Dalton, born around 1884. They moved to Carbondale, Pennsylvania, in the 1870s, and he worked as a watchman. They moved to Scranton, Pennsylvania, in the 1880s, and he worked as a railroad gate tender there. In January 1885, he helped establish a Prisoners of War Association, and he served as vice president. He applied for a federal pension in March 1889 and eventually received one.

 

His wife died of “heart trouble” on January 5, 1905. In July 1908, he was admitted to the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers in Hampton, Virginia. According to his admission records, he was 5 feet, 8 inches tall, with dark hair and hazel eyes. He was suffering from “chronic articular rheumatism” and “cardiac hypertrophy and dilation.” He died in Baltimore, Maryland, on May 18, 1912. As one writer explained, his “death was caused by cancer of the stomach, following an operation.”

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