Bruinsburg, Mississippi

Bruinsburg is an extinct settlement in Claiborne County, Mississippi, United States. 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.

It was located on the south bank of Bayou Pierre, 3.0 mi 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.

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 1200 acre 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. 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.

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." One "R Brasher...quite hearty & rugged" lived "near Bruinsburgh at the mouth of Buyo Pierre..." at that time.

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. By 1848 it was noted in a river guide for steamboat people as only a "small place, on the lower side of Bayou Pierre."

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 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 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."

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

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.