Henry S. Russell

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 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 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

Russell entered the Union Army on May 11, 1861, as a lieutenant in the 2nd Massachusetts Cavalry. 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. 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. 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. He remained commissioner until his death on February 16, 1905.

In 1909, a drinking fountain in memory of Russell was erected in Milton, Massachusetts, where he had been a summer resident for many years.