Hugh Carey

Hugh Carey was born in Ireland around 1840. Like many Irish immigrants of his generation, he eventually made his way to the United States and was living in New York when the American Civil War began. Within days of the outbreak of the conflict, Carey entered military service and began a career that would ultimately earn him the Medal of Honor for extraordinary courage at Gettysburg.

Carey enlisted in New York City on April 18, 1861, committing himself to three years of service in the Union Army. He was mustered into Company E of the 82nd New York Infantry on May 21, 1861, initially holding the rank of Corporal.

The regiment was also historically associated with the designation 2nd New York State Militia. It became part of the Army of the Potomac and accumulated an extensive combat record in the Eastern Theater. During Carey's period of service, the regiment participated in some of the most important campaigns of the first three years of the Civil War.

The 82nd New York fought during the early operations of the Army of the Potomac and later took part in the Peninsula Campaign. Its soldiers endured hard fighting at Fair Oaks and during the Seven Days Battles before returning north for further campaigning.

In September 1862, the regiment fought at Antietam, where it suffered serious losses while serving with the Second Corps. The battle became the bloodiest single day in American military history and demonstrated the increasingly severe combat experienced by veteran Union infantry regiments.

The 82nd New York later participated in the Battle of Fredericksburg and then returned to action at Chancellorsville in May 1863. By this stage of the war, Carey had gained considerable battlefield experience and had been promoted from Corporal to Sergeant.

As a Sergeant, Carey occupied an important position within the enlisted leadership of Company E. Civil War sergeants were expected to help maintain formations, relay orders, encourage soldiers under fire, and provide direct leadership during combat. These responsibilities required experience, discipline, and the confidence of both officers and enlisted men.

Only weeks after Chancellorsville, the Army of the Potomac moved north in response to General Robert E. Lee's invasion of Pennsylvania. The campaign culminated in the Battle of Gettysburg, fought from July 1 through July 3, 1863.

The 82nd New York Infantry entered Gettysburg as part of the Second Corps. The regiment faced severe fighting during the battle and suffered devastating casualties.

On July 2, the regiment moved toward the Emmitsburg Road to help protect the exposed flank of the Union Third Corps. Confederate attacks forced the New Yorkers into extremely heavy combat. The regiment was outflanked and compelled to fall back before reorganizing under fire.

The losses were enormous. Officers and enlisted men were killed or wounded, including the regiment's commander. Yet the surviving soldiers reorganized and continued fighting rather than allowing the unit to collapse.

The following day, July 3, the 82nd New York was again drawn into one of the decisive moments of the battle.

That afternoon, Confederate forces launched the massive assault commonly known as Pickett's Charge against the center of the Union line on Cemetery Ridge. Brigades from Virginia and other Confederate states advanced across open ground toward the Federal position under devastating artillery and rifle fire.

The 7th Virginia Infantry was among the Confederate regiments involved in the assault. As the attack reached the Union position, close-range fighting erupted around the stone wall and surrounding terrain.

Sergeant Hugh Carey distinguished himself during this struggle.

In the midst of the fighting, Carey captured the battle flag of the 7th Virginia Infantry.

Taking an enemy regimental flag during the Civil War was an exceptionally dangerous achievement. Colors were among the most important objects on a nineteenth-century battlefield. They provided soldiers with a visible rallying point through smoke, confusion, and the movement of large formations.

A regiment's flag was normally carried near the center of the formation and protected by a dedicated color guard. Because the color bearer was highly visible, he and the men around him were frequently exposed to concentrated enemy fire.

Capturing such a flag often required a soldier to enter very close combat, overcome or pass through the men assigned to defend it, and secure the colors before enemy troops could recover them.

Carey's effort to capture the 7th Virginia's flag came at severe personal cost.

He was wounded twice while carrying out the capture.

Despite those wounds, Carey succeeded in taking possession of the Confederate colors. His accomplishment occurred during the destruction of the Confederate assault against the Union center and became the defining act of his military career.

The broader fighting on July 3 ended in a major Union victory. Pickett's Charge was repulsed with devastating Confederate losses, and Lee's army began withdrawing from Gettysburg the following day.

For the 82nd New York Infantry, Gettysburg had been extraordinarily costly. The regiment entered the battle with several hundred officers and men and suffered heavy losses in killed, wounded, and missing soldiers during the fighting of July 2 and July 3.

Carey survived both his wounds and the battle.

He remained with the regiment after Gettysburg as the Army of the Potomac continued operations against Confederate forces. The 82nd New York subsequently participated in the autumn campaigns of 1863, including operations around Auburn and Bristoe Station, followed by the Mine Run Campaign.

Carey's original three-year term of service approached completion in the spring of 1864. Having entered service in April 1861 and been mustered into Company E the following month, he had served through some of the hardest campaigns experienced by the Army of the Potomac.

On May 21, 1864, Hugh Carey was discharged from military service after completing his term.

His verified highest rank remained Sergeant.

Although Carey's capture of the 7th Virginia Infantry's colors had taken place at Gettysburg in 1863, he did not receive the nation's highest military decoration during his lifetime.

The Medal of Honor had been created during the Civil War. Congress authorized the Army Medal of Honor in 1862 at a time when the United States did not yet possess the extensive hierarchy of military valor decorations developed in later generations.

During the Civil War, the capture of enemy colors was considered an act of exceptional military distinction. A soldier attempting such a feat exposed himself to extreme danger while striking directly at one of the most important symbols of an opposing regiment.

Carey's Gettysburg action clearly belonged to this tradition of battlefield valor.

After leaving the Army, Carey returned to civilian life in New York. Surviving official military records preserve considerably more detail about his wartime service than about his civilian occupation and personal activities, so uncertain claims concerning those years should not be added without reliable evidence.

What is firmly established is that Carey lived in Brooklyn, New York, during the later part of his life.

Hugh Carey died in Brooklyn on March 26, 1886. He was approximately forty-five or forty-six years old.

He was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.

Carey died before the United States formally completed its recognition of his extraordinary action at Gettysburg.

Nearly twenty-five years after the battle, and almost two years after Carey's death, the United States awarded him the Medal of Honor.

The Medal was issued posthumously on February 6, 1888.

The official citation recognized Sergeant Hugh Carey of Company E, 82nd New York Infantry, for capturing the flag of the 7th Virginia Infantry while being twice wounded in the effort.

Because the Medal was presented in 1888, its historically appropriate database representation is Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army — 1888.

No clasp, star, bar, oak leaf cluster, or other device has been verified with Carey's Medal of Honor. His verified decoration therefore consists of one Medal of Honor without additional devices.

Carey's story is particularly significant because his Medal of Honor recognition came after his death. He never personally witnessed the formal national acknowledgment of the courage he had displayed as a young Sergeant at Gettysburg.

Nevertheless, the award permanently preserved his achievement within the official history of the United States Army.

Hugh Carey's military career had begun shortly after the Civil War itself began. He enlisted in April 1861, entered Company E of the 82nd New York Infantry, rose from Corporal to Sergeant, and served through some of the Army of the Potomac's hardest campaigns.

His defining moment came at Gettysburg on July 3, 1863.

During the climactic Confederate assault against Cemetery Ridge, Carey entered the close-range fighting and captured the battle flag of the 7th Virginia Infantry. He suffered two wounds in accomplishing the feat but successfully secured the enemy colors.

That flag capture placed him among the soldiers whose individual courage became permanently connected with the Union victory at Gettysburg.

Hugh Carey died in 1886 without having received the decoration himself, but on February 6, 1888, the United States formally honored his battlefield courage with a posthumous Medal of Honor.

Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army — 1888 remains Hugh Carey's verified military decoration and the defining official recognition of his courage at the Battle of Gettysburg.