Stephen Hunt: A Civil War Soldier Whose Life Centered on St. Paul's Church

Stephen P. Hunt in the early 20th century. NPS.

Stephen P. Hunt fought in one of the Civil War's bloodiest assaults, and for the rest of his long life — until his burial in the churchyard in 1910 — his spiritual and social world centered on St. Paul's Church.

Early life

• Born: April 29, 1829, in New York City. As a boy his family bought a farm near St. Paul's in Eastchester, about 20 miles north of the city.
• Church and family: a congregant for nearly 70 years, he married Caroline Crawford there on June 17, 1852; the new rector, Father William S. Coffey, whose tenure would parallel Hunt's attachment to the parish, officiated.
• Trade: he learned carpentry as a teenager and was still listed as a carpenter at 75 in Mount Vernon's 1904 city directory.

Enlistment

Many local men enlisted in fall 1862, but Hunt waited: Caroline was expecting their second child (Stephen D., born February 1863). In January 1864, at 33 — older than most soldiers — he and his younger brother Ogden joined Company C, 8th New York Heavy Artillery, on the same day. His record describes a man of average height, 5 ft 5½ in, with grey eyes, dark hair and a dark complexion.

Cold Harbor and Petersburg

• From forts to the front: heavy artillery regiments trained on big siege guns to guard the capital region; the 8th, posted around Baltimore, saw little fighting. In spring 1864, as Ulysses S. Grant launched the Overland Campaign against Robert E. Lee, these regiments were made infantry and sent to the Army of the Potomac — as the "heavies," among its largest units.
• June 3, 1864: in the Second Corps, the 8th New York attacked at the center of Grant's massive frontal assaults at Cold Harbor, near Richmond. Expecting disaster, soldiers pinned slips with their names and addresses to their uniforms. Within an hour the regiment lost more than 400 men, including Colonel Peter Porter — the most of any regiment among the day's 7,000 Union losses. Grant later said: "I regret this assault more than any one I have ever ordered."
• Petersburg: unhurt, Hunt marched with the regiment to Petersburg by June 18 and joined the first assaults there, then the long siege until the breakthrough of early April 1865 that led to the fall of Richmond and Lee's surrender.
• Home on leave: a 15-day leave in January 1865, for a family affliction, let him sponsor the baptism of his infant niece Helene Hunt at St. Paul's.
• Discharge: promoted corporal in March 1865, briefly moved to the 10th New York Volunteer Infantry, he was honorably discharged on June 30.

A life at St. Paul's

For 45 years Hunt lived on South Fourth Avenue, half a mile from the church, as the rural town of his boyhood became an industrial district. Church records show his devotion:

• his and Caroline's three children were baptized by Father Coffey, and he sponsored other children for baptism;
• he assisted at services and directed the Sunday school for forty years;
• he sat on the vestry, the governing board, for 58 years, and was senior warden — the lay leader — for 17 years.

He was also chaplain of Farnsworth Post 170 of the Grand Army of the Republic, the veterans' organization based at the church, whose 150 members from southern Westchester conducted funerals and aided widows. GAR posts were local bases of the Republican Party, and Hunt served as a ward committeeman, hosting paper-ballot primaries at home. He also stayed on call with the New York National Guard.

Last years

He drew a pension from 1890, receiving his last monthly $20 payment (about $500 today) days before he died on August 10, 1910, at 81. His son Stephen, also a carpenter, lived with him. A simple marble veterans' stone marks his grave in the St. Paul's cemetery.

Sources

Based on "Stephen Hunt: Civil War soldier whose life centered on St. Paul's Church," St. Paul's Church National Historic Site, National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain.