Peter Hunter, City’s Only Living Civil War Veteran, Wanted to Fight Spaniards
Joined Union Army in Greenup age of 16 years
Ironton’s last living veteran of the Civil War, Peter Hunter of North Fifth Street, was tall and strong-voiced but a bit crippled by advancing infirmities of age.
And his history is one of patriotism, reckless abandonment of youth, the wild search for adventure, and the blazing of trails that led to today’s rapidly developing America. He was 89 years old last week and received a happy remembrance from the Elk Lodge, in which he is a life member and hasn’t a worry in the world.
“There is something about a soldier that is fine, fine, fine.”
The writer who penned those words covered the nation’s defenders in all wars, but he must have specifically had those veterans of the civil war in mind. Around them was a halo of romance, rugged individuality, a bit of humor, and perhaps a touch or two of blarney.
The ill-trained troops of the Revolution made the birth of a nation possible, but those who served in the Union forces of the Civil War preserved the nation. The daily passing of these veterans, along with those courteous, courageous members of the Confederate army–gallant even in defeat–will remove the last living testimonies of another romantic chapter in American history.
Through Peter Hunter’s memory, flash visions of mounted infantry moving against confederates, the campaign against Gettysburg and the culmination of a three-day battle there, river romance, and the steady development of transportation.
Mr. Hunter was born in Maple Grove, W. Va., on March 9, 1849. His grandparents were plantation owners of Eastern Virginia. Even though the family-owned slaves, it was a house divided, for Peter Hunter, his brother Joseph and his father-in-law Frank DeMaro, fought with the Union forces. In contrast, his brother Sam joined the confederates and was fatally injured in the Vicksburg siege. He was a cousin of the famed General Early of the Confederate forces.
Peter Hunter joined the Union army at the age of sixteen years at Greenupsburg, now Greenup, Ky. He was assigned to Company K of the 53rd Kentucky Mounted Infantry, where “hard tack, sou belly, and coffee” was the daily menu, and a small four-man tent was his home. Veterans were paid at the rate of $13 a month. “It was funny to watch us tumble from those tents at Roll Call,” reminiscences the aging veteran. He served in the war under Colonel True, was “in” on the history-making battle at Gettysburg, and was discharged at Louisville.
His life continued along its adventurous course, for he immediately entered river service as mate, pilot, and captain on tugs plying between the Kanawha River, Ohio, and Mississippi. Peter Hunter was united in marriage to Amelia DeMaro on Nov. 8, 1877. She died twelve years ago. The family first resided in Ashland, then moved to Ironton, and Mr. Hunter has been one of the city’s distinguished residents for well over a quarter century.
He remembers George and Bill Bay when they operated a store in Indian Guyan. Then they entered the river trade, and among their boats were the J. C. Crossley, Falcon, the side-wheeler Scioto, and others. The last boat operated by Mr. Hunter was the Crown Hill, but he still had a yearning for the river and, not so many summers ago, launched upon the impromptu boat trip that had relatives in a three-day flurry until he had been located.
But even the Civil War, then river service, failed to satisfy his yearning for action completely. He attempted to enlist in the Spanish-American war, was temporarily accepted, and traveled as far as Ft. Thomas before being turned back due to his age and family. He did have a son, Henry, in that war, and in 1917 had a son, James Hunter, in the World War.
He has been a patriotic family. And there comes a feeling of sorrow as he looks back upon the years and realizes he is the last of his “buddies,” the last Ironton wearer of the “little brown button,” that mark of service given every Union soldier by a grateful nation. All these G. A. R. buttons were made from metal poured from rebel cannon, and every veteran listed it among his most prized possessions. First, Mr. Hunter wore his with John L. Ziegler Post, 92, G. A. R. at Kenova, a charter organization member. Then he transferred to Dick Lambert Post of Ironton.
Peter Hunter is the last of the Virginia family of Hunters, his parents, brothers, and sisters having preceded him in death. Two sons, Sam and Edgar, are dead, but four sons and one daughter, Mrs. Mary Hunter Sloan of Ironton, James Hunter of Ironton, Henry of Columbus, John of Vermillion, Ohio, and Charles, now in the east, are living.
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