Ambers Strunk
Ambrose M. “Ambers” Strunk (Oct. 25, 1841 – April 1, 1862) was a McCreary County man killed in Scott County during the Civil War.
See Also: Scott Countians killed in war
Biography
Born Oct. 25, 1841 on Marsh Creek in present-day McCreary County, Ky., Ambers Strunk was the son of Isham Strunk (1817-1892) and Elizabeth King (1819-1896). His siblings included Mary Jane Chambers (1831-1895), Delphia Hill (1838-1897), Nancy Elizabeth Cordell (1845-1919), Henry Burrel Strunk (1847-1898), James Isham Strunk (1849-1968), Andrew Wilson Strunk (1851-1939), David Elisha Strunk (1848-1923) and Lucinda West (1869-1934).
Ambers was not actually from Scott County; he lived in Whitley County (now McCreary County) when both the 1850 and 1860 censuses were taken. However, his mother was born on Capuchin Creek in what is now Scott County. Marsh Creek, where Ambers was born and raised, is located just across the TN-KY line in southern McCreary County.
Civil War
It does not appear that Ambers Strunk enlisted in the Union army during the Civil War. However, he was present at the Battle of Brimstone on April 1, 1862 as a member of the Scott County Home Guard. The Home Guard had been formed on Dec. 28, 1861 when 71 men met at the Scott County Courthouse in Huntsville and signed an oath of loyalty to the Union while pledging to protect their homes and each other.
William Robbins, who would later serve as a captain in the 7th Tennessee Infantry and died of typhoid fever during the war, was allegedly the first man to sign the oath. On April 1, 1862, a company of rebel soldiers under the command of Col. John C. Vaughn — a former sheriff in Monroe County, Tenn. — arrived on Brimstone Creek to search for his home, and a battle ensued.
Ambers Strunk was the only confirmed casualty of the battle, although others were said to have been killed. In Dusty Bits of the Forgotten Past, historian H. Clay Smith said the Confederates dragged their dead to an abandoned house and set it afire, cremating the bodies. The Confederates told a different story. One, John Offield, wrote that two Rebels had been killed and four wounded, while 15 Scott Countians had been killed and 20 wounded. Confederate Lt. Crockett R. Millard told the Athens Post that four rebels had been killed and 11 wounded, while 30 Scott Countians had been killed and 18 taken prisoner. The numbers were almost certainly greatly exaggerated.
Strunk was the first person to be killed in action in Scott County during the war, though another Scott County man — George Marcum — had been killed on Buffalo Creek in January 1862. It was written that his mother traveled to Brimstone Creek and returned the body of her son to a burial site just across the TN-KY line. His headstone reads: “Ambers Strunk was born Oct 25 1841 dec April 1 1862, kiled by the Rebbls in the Brimstone battle.”
