Prompt: FAMILY LORE                                                                                          JAN 5, 2024

Little Vincent Huneke born Dec 3, 1901, in Brooklyn, New York, loved playing with his grandfather, Anthony Rush born Nov 16, 1835 in Roscommon, Ireland. Vincent was living at 334 39^th Street, Brooklyn, New York with his father, George Huneke, his mother, Margaret, his siblings, Helen, Bernadette, Lillian, and George C and his grandfather, Anthony Rush and his uncle Patrick J. Rush.

They were getting ready for winter and Vincent was out with his granda chopping wood.  At 75, Anthony had a little loss of hearing and a touch of senility. That didn’t stop him from telling his grandsire stories of his antics in the Civil War.  With his strong Irish brogue, he told Vincent of the various battles that Company C of the 78^th New York Regiment Infantry engaged in.  I Imagine it went something like this:

Aye, the memories of war, lad, they cling to you like the scent of gunpowder and sweat.

I remember it like it was yesterday. It was a hot day that August of 1862. We were at Cedar Mountain in Culpepper County, Virginia. There were rolling hills that reminded me of my home in Ireland.  But the forest was thick and that helped us battle those confederates.  So many were wounded and died, but I survived.

Just a month later, on an early September morning, the battle of Antietam occurred in Maryland. Now that was a battle to end all battles, but it didn’t! The air was thick with smoke and the sounds of canons. We were able to push those confederates back. But that damn Lee refused to retreat, and the battle continued into the evening. We were all exhausted!!

Aye, then there was that Battle at Chancellorsville. That was three days of hell in May 1863.  We marched in with numbers on our side, a tide of blue against the rebel gray. Yet, Lee, the old fox, outsmarted us. He slithered through the thickets, flanking us with whispers of steel and smoke. The union was outsmarted, and we had to retreat. 

Aye, this damn lumbago!! It’s a brutal beast that has caused me so many problems since that bullet caught me. I was shot by some johnny reb in Chancellorsville.

Vincent, a rambunctious little boy, rolled his eyes at the blarney his granda was giving him. He had heard the stories before, and the ailments Anthony complained about. Finally, after hearing enough, Vincent says, “Well, you wouldn’t have been shot in the back if you weren’t runnin’ away!” At that, Anthony picked up his axe and hurled it at Vincent missing him by a hair.

This family story led to years of research and the truth.  Anthony was in those battles, and he was shot at the Battle of Chancellorsville on May 2, 1863.  His left hand near his index finger had a bullet through it. Per his deposition to the special counsel regarding pension Anthony says, “…he looked at my hand; three or four other doctors were busy amputating and the hospital steward – don’t know his name – washed my hand. The doctor bound up my hand and I remained about two days around camp when we got (unable to read) away. Doctor took out splinters of bone; I didn’t go to hospital; the troops fell back about the 5^th of May and I joined the regiment….”

It always made the family proud that their ancestor was fighting for the union army and they would chuckle to think he was running away when he got shot.  He wasn’t running – he was fighting!!