Samuel Bryan, son of James and Mary (nee Goodge) Bryan, was born August 23 , 1841, near Uniontown, Pa. In 1862 or 1863 he enlisted as a private in the 15th Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers of the Civil War. He was promoted to a noncommissioned officer rank about a year after entering the service. A photograph of Samuel shows the stripes of a corporal or sergeant on his coat sleeve. It is stated that he had gone thru the battle of Five Forks, West Virginia battle ground, and with several other soldiers, was covering the battle field for wounded soldiers, when a southern soldier, on the other side of the battle field, together with squad men, picked p a rifle from the ground and shot Samuel, of which was a violation of the common military law of alienation's and men. Samuel's body was brought to his home, then near Dawson, Pa., and buried in the Bryan Church cemetery beside his parents.
When the Civil War broke out in 1861 the government called for volunteers, and later enacted the draft law. James was drafted, but the folks at home on the farm needed his services and paid the government a sum of money to release James from military service. But in 1863, when John, his brother, returned from three years of military service, and farm work was arranged so that the folks could get along without him, he enlisted as a private in a Company B, 35th Regiment, 10th Corps, Pennsylvania Volunteers, a company organizing near Uniontown, Pa. One Captain Diall was the company commander and Samuel Stevenson of Scottdale, Pa., was its second lieutenant (or 1st.) One Jacob Strawn (Possibly related to James Strawn.)was a member of his company, and after the war he is said to have gone to Illinois, where he practiced law.
After a year of soldiering James took and passed the examination for a commissioned officer and was recommended for a captaincy of a negro company in a negro regiment. His regimental commanding officer thought differently and refused to give up any more men from his already depleted forces. James often remarked that he was just as well satisfied for his rejection, as the rule of the southern army was to take no prisoners of a negro company (give "no quarter"), which meant that if captured all would be slain and likely the officers would meet the same fate. He felt that the decision of the colonel brought him back to his mother and father and to live to be a father himself.
James' company never participated in large battles, but was employed chiefly in accounting duty and in feeling out the strength of the enemy. On ce, as James related to the writer, his company had met a strong enemy detachment and his company ordered to retreat. In doing so he leaped over a ditch and fell from the weight of a heavy load of ammunition and equipment he was carrying. He thought no more about his fall until the next morning, when the army physician told him he had sustained a serious rupture, a double hernia in the pelvic region. He was then taken from his company and assigned to general work in the army base hospital, where he remained until he was mustered out in 1865, having served a little less than two years as a soldier. His hernia bothered him a great deal at times thrum life, but by wearing a special truss he was able to carry on and do a man's work.
In his advancing years his rupture gave him much trouble and annoyance, but he cheerfully bore his infirmity without complaining.