Horatio Washington Bruce (February 22, 1830 – January 22, 1903) was a Confederate politician during the American Civil War. Early life Horatio Bruce was born February 22, 1830, about one mile south of Vanceburg in Lewis County, Kentucky. He was the son of Alexander and Amanda (Bragg) Bruce and named for two of his uncles, Horatio and Washington Bruce. His paternal grandfather was a soldier in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, and his father was a wealthy landowner who served as a Whig in the Kentucky General Assembly in 1825 and 1826. His maternal grandfather also served in the Revolutionary War. He was of Scottish ancestry on his father's side and English ancestry on his mother's side. Bruce was educated in private schools in his native Lewis County, as well as Manchester, Ohio. At age sixteen, he began work as a salesman in a general store, a job he held until 1849. Concurrently, he was postmaster of the post office in Vanceburg. In 1849, Bruce taught at a school in Vanceburg for a five-month term. The following year, he taught for five months in another school in Lewis County. In December 1850, he relocated to Flemingsburg, where he read law in the office of Leander M. Cox. He was admitted to the bar in July 1851 and opened his practice in Flemingsburg. Later that year, he was appointed examiner by the circuit court of Fleming county, and soon after was elected to the Flemingsburg Board of School Trustees. Antebellum political career Bruce first became active in politics in 1852, making campaign speeches for the Whig presidential ticket of Winfield Scott and William Alexander Graham in the 1852 election. When the Whig Party collapsed, Bruce associated with the Know Nothing Party, and was elected to represent Fleming County in the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1855 and 1856. On June 12, 1856, Bruce married Elizabeth Hardin Helm, daughter of two-time Kentucky Governor John L. Helm, at "Helm Place", the bride's home in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. The couple had five children: Helm Bruce, Elizabeth Barber Bruce, Maria Preston Pope Bruce, Mary (Bruce) Smith, and V. Alexander Bruce. In August 1856, Bruce was elected Commonwealth's Attorney for the Tenth District, comprising Mason, Lewis, Greenup, Rowan, Fleming and Nicholas counties. He held this position until 1858. In late 1858, he resigned his position as Commonwealth's Attorney and moved to Louisville. There, he formed