Bruner was beaten and tried to escape many times,[3][5] having endured "extreme physical violence and psychological deprivation.

"[8] On July 25, 1864, after numerous attempts, he escaped slavery and joined the Union Army as a free man at Camp Nelson in Kentucky, serving in Company C of the 12th Regiment Heavy Artillery U.S.

On June 13, 1864, restrictions were lifted requiring men to be free or have their owner's written permission to engage in the war.

[9][12] Bruner described the events of his second, successful attempt to enlist in his book A Slave's Adventures Toward Freedom: "The next morning about five o'clock I had gone twenty-one miles and had arrived at Richmond.

[14] Unlike the all-white unit that guarded central Kentucky for the Union in 1863, the new army welcomed, initiated, trained, and commanded thousands of African American soldiers willing to fight the Confederates and, more immediately, to attain their freedom.

[2][15] Peter Bruner is listed on plaque B-26 at the African American Civil War Memorial in Washington, D.C.[10] In 1866, he moved to Oxford, Ohio, where his aunt and uncle named the Brassfields lived.

[16][17] Bruner worked as a custodian and messenger at Western Female Seminary, Oxford College, which merged into Miami University.

[15] Bruner often served as ceremonial greeter at the university, wearing top hat and tails.

With his daughter, Carrie Burns, he wrote an autobiography, A Slave's Adventures Toward Freedom; Not Fiction, but the True Story of a Struggle.

[7][21] Peter Bruner died on April 6, 1938,[5] and is one of the African-American Civil War Veterans buried in Woodside Cemetery, Oxford, Ohio.