Civil War McGuckin
James H. McGuckin, son of Irish immigrants James McGuckin and Rosanna Bailey, was born about 1841 in Rochester. His mother drowned in Brown’s Race in 1857 and the children scattered after her death.
By 1860 James was living with the George Streeter family who kept a tavern at the Rapids. Following the attack on Fort Sumter, President Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers on 15 April 1861. James enlisted in Company I (not Company A as stated on the gravestone), 13th NY Volunteer Infantry on April 25th at Rochester for a period of two years State service. His physical appearance was described as five feet nine inches tall with blue eyes, dark hair and of dark complexion. He was mustered in as a private at Elmira, NY on May 14th, at which time the regiment was federalized for a three-month term. The Thirteenth went first to Washington and then on to northern Virginia to work on the construction of Fort Corcoran. On July 21st the regiment was engaged in the First Battle of Bull Run/Manassas. Rochester soldier Sam Partridge wrote home to a friend that “The Thirteenth behaved nobly on the field, was the last to leave – and is now the subject of more praises in Washington than any other regiment in the engagement.” On a more somber note, he also said, “The gullys [sic] fairly ran with blood and the dead on both sides would nearly fill Mount Hope. This is no hyperbole but the sad and sobering truth…. We could not take our dead or wounded with us – but when we ran, we left them to their [the Confederates] tender mercies – the bayonet – or rifle ball.”
On 2 August 1861 the Governor of New York ordered the regiment into the service of the United States for the unexpired portion of its term of State service. When the men discovered this, having expected to be mustered out on August 14th and given prior assurances that this would be the case, they were demoralized and became mutinous. Another Partridge letter stated that “When the morning reports were handed in to my tent instead of being the customary long columns of words and figures they were mostly thus: Morning Report Co. I, Aug. 14, 1861. Men all present and refused to do duty.” James deserted on September 15th and returned home where he stayed until arrested in early June 1863. He was sent to Washington DC and was there enlisted in Company H, 2nd Regiment, District of Columbia Infantry where he served about six weeks before again going AWOL. James was arrested in Detroit in late June 1864 and sentenced to three years hard labor at Fort Delaware, the first year to be served with a 24-pound ball attached to his left leg, and to be dishonorably discharged. However, by instruction of the President via the War Department dated 29 June 1865, the residue of his sentence was remitted, and he was honorably discharged.
He was mustered out on July 1, 1865 at Fort Delaware and returned to Rochester. James died of tuberculosis in Rochester on 26 September 1885 and was buried here on 28 September. Relatives buried at Rapids Cemetery are his brother and sister-in-law Edward and Sophia (Churchill) McGuckin.
James H McGuckin’s headstone found in Rapids Cemetery.
