Henry Sturgis Russell (June 21, 1838 – February 16, 1905) was an American military and government official who served as commander of the

5th Regiment Massachusetts Colored Volunteer Cavalry The 5th Regiment Massachusetts Colored Volunteer Cavalry (or 5th Regiment, Massachusetts Cavalry (Colored)) was a cavalry regiment from Massachusetts, that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Service The regiment was organize ...

and as the first commissioner of the Boston Fire Department.

Early life

Russell was born on June 21, 1838, in the Savin Hill section of

Dorchester, Massachusetts Dorchester (colloquially referred to as Dot) is a Boston neighborhood comprising more than in the City of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Originally, Dorchester was a separate town, founded by Puritans who emigrated in 1630 from Dorchester ...

to George R. and Sarah Parkinson (Shaw) Russell. His grandfather was ambassador Jonathan Russell and his first cousin was Robert Gould Shaw. Russell graduated from Harvard University in 1860.

Military career

A cycle of Adams letters, 1861-1865 (1920) (14592803337)

Russell entered the Union Army on May 11, 1861, as a lieutenant in the

2nd Massachusetts Cavalry The 2nd Massachusetts Volunteer Cavalry Regiment was a regiment of cavalry troops in the Union army during the American Civil War. It consisted primarily of men from the states of California and Massachusetts, and served in the Eastern Theater, ...

. He was promoted to captain on December 13, 1861. He was captured at the Battle of Cedar Mountain (August 9, 1862) and sent to Libby Prison. He was released in a prisoner exchange and returned to duty on November 15, 1862. On January 22, 1863, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel. On April 5, 1864, he was made a colonel of the

. When the regiment reached Washington D.C., Russell was briefly assigned command of a brigade at Camp Casey. On May 13 he was ordered to join General Edward Winslow Hincks' division in City Point, Virginia. On June 15, Russell was wounded in the Siege of Petersburg. He rejoined his regiment on September 30 at Point Lookout, Maryland, where his regiment was guarding Confederate prisoners of war. He resigned his command on February 15, 1865, and was brevetted brigadier general on March 13, 1865.

Business career and family

After the war, Russell joined J.M. Forbes & Co., where he sold goods from

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

and East India. In 1863 he married Mary Hathaway, the daughter of John Murray Forbes. The couple had five children.

Government appointments

In 1878, control of the Boston Police Department was transferred from the board of alderman to an independent police commission. Mayor Henry L. Pierce appointed Russell to chair the new board. Russell was credited with creating the harbor police, reorganizing the force on a semi-military basis (the first reorganization of the department since its founding in 1854), proposing new rules for conduct and definitions of duties, arranging for merit-based promotions, and instituting physical examinations for officers under the rank of captain. He left the board in 1880. In January 1895, he was appointed by Mayor

Edwin Upton Curtis Edwin Upton Curtis (May 26, 1861 – March 28, 1922) was an American attorney and politician from Massachusetts who served as the 34th Mayor of Boston (1895–1896). Later, as Boston Police Commissioner (1918–1922), his refusal to recognize t ...

to succeed

John R. Murphy John Robert Murphy (August 25, 1856 – December 28, 1932) was a Massachusetts politician and attorney who served as the Commissioner of the Boston Fire Department, Chairman of the Boston Finance Commission and in both branches of the Massachu ...

on the Boston Fire commission. That July, Russell became the first solo commissioner in the department's history. During his tenure as commissioner, Russell hired and promoted based on merit rather than political considerations and worked to improve living conditions in the city's firehouses. He remained commissioner until his death on February 16, 1905. He was buried at Milton Cemetery. In 1909, a drinking fountain in memory of Russell was erected in Milton, Massachusetts, where he had been a summer resident for many years.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Russell, Henry S. 1838 births 1905 deaths American Civil War prisoners of war Commissioners of the Boston Fire Department Harvard University alumni Massachusetts Republicans Businesspeople from Boston People from Milton, Massachusetts People of Massachusetts in the American Civil War Union Army generals 19th-century American businesspeople