May 27 

 

          On this day in 1862, Private Hugh Puckett (1840-1905) of the 28th North Carolina Infantry suffered a gruesome wound in his right leg at the Battle of Hanover Court House in Virginia, necessitating its amputation. A 21-year-old newlywed laboring on his father’s small farm, Puckett did not immediately enlist when the war broke out. Yet the pull became too strong and he and his older brother James joined the “Surry Regulators” together in the 2nd wave of enlistments on March 18, 1862. He joined the regiment at Kinston shortly before it was ordered to Virginia in early May. As part of General Lawrence O’Bryan Branch’s brigade, the 28th North Carolina was stationed near Hanover Court House. Union General George McClellan became concerned that the presence of the Confederate brigade might interfere with reinforcements he hoped were approaching from the north, so he ordered them to be driven away. On May 27, elements of Fitz John Porter’s corps approached the village. The 28th North Carolina had advanced earlier that morning and found themselves cut off by the approaching Union forces. In the fighting that ensued, the 28th suffered heavy casualties including more than 400 captured. Two of the captured were the Puckett brothers. Hugh’s right leg had been shattered by a Minié ball, and James had remained with him to offer succor. Hugh had his leg amputated at the Gaines Mill hospital and moved between Union hospitals before he was finally exchanged and discharged from the service in September 1862. James was exchanged at the same time, but would die of disease in March 1863. Hugh, despite his handicap, returned home to his wife, Elizabeth, and together they raised eleven children. His active service with the army had only lasted ten weeks, but it left a lifelong reminder.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

​Alfred Waud’s sketch of the beginning of the Battle of Hanover Court House, when Union forces attacked the 28th North Carolina.

 

Sources:

Weymouth T. Jordan, Jr., comp., North Carolina Troops, 1861-1865: A Roster, 8:121; Hugh Pucket, Compiled Military Service Record; 1860 U.S. Census: Ashe County, NC; Stephen Sears, To the Gates of Richmond (1992), 114.