Isaiah Fassett was born into slavery in Sinepuxent in 1844. On November 11, 1863, at age nineteen, he was released from bondage by his owner, Sara A. Bruff, so that he could enlist in Company D, 9th United States Colored Troops. Bruff, who was loyal to the United States, applied for compensation from the U.S. Army on February 16, 1864, and received $300 for Fassett. About five feet five inches tall when he enlisted, Fassett served with his regiment in Maryland until March 1864, then in South Carolina, and in August moved to Virginia, where the regiment took part in the siege of Petersburg and Richmond and fought at New Market Heights, Fort Gilmer, and Darbytown Road. The regiment entered and occupied Richmond on April 3, 1865. Fassett was promoted from private to corporal on May 1, and the regiment then served in Texas until October. He was discharged in New Orleans, Louisiana, on November 26, 1866, and returned to Berlin. In 1870, he appeared in census records for the first time as a free man with his wife, Sarah Purnell, and their son, Peter. He served as a commander of the Grand Army of the Republic post in Berlin until it disbanded. In July 1938, he attended the 75th Anniversary ceremonies in Gettysburg. He took part in Memorial Day parades, marching, riding a horse, and later sitting in an automobile, until in old age he stood on his porch and saluted as the parade passed. He was Maryland's next-to-last surviving Civil War veteran when he died on June 24, 1946.