Chapter X

The Grand Army of the Republic

IF a definite date is sought for the beginning of the slavery agitation out of which proceeded the War for the Union, it may he placed in the year 1820, when Missouri was admitted into the Union- not but that the question had previously shown itself to be a disturbing and threatening element, but because at that time there was presented for solution, the momentous problem whether the vast territory which had been acquired by the Louisiana purchase should be thrown open to the slave power of the South. The people of the free States- or at least an overwhelming majority of them were determined that this more than imperial domain should not be used for the extension of slavery, while those in favor of it were equally resolute in the maintenance of their theory that the slave-holder should be at liberty to locate in any of the newly-formed Territories with their human chattels, and, if they possessed the voting majority, to establish slavery by the Constitution of any State created from the Territories. It is not required that we should here refer to the several compromise measures passed by Congress defining lines stretching from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, the soil north of which should be forbidden .to the slave-master and that south of it preserved to him forever. All such efforts to accomplish the impossible task of reconciling under one government two widely repellent industrial, political and social systems proved failures before they were wiped out by the decision of the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott case.

Interwoven with this phase of the irrepressible conflict was the doctrine of States' rights upheld by the Southern leaders and insisted upon as the most efficacious of the instruments for the extension and perpetuity of slavery. It had been discussed with extreme vigor in the convention which framed the Constitution of the nation, and even the victory therein of the Federalists over the opposition had not laid it to rest or prevented it from becoming a crucial issue in subsequent politics. It bad been the justification for South Carolina in 1832, when, under the guidance of John C. Calhoun, that State endeavored to nullify the tariff legislation of Congress, and from it the Southern statesmen derived the alleged right of secession, in consequence of the election of Abraham Lincoln to the chief magistracy as the candidate of a party which declared opposition to the extension of slavery to be its reason for existence.

The opening of the War for the Union found New Jersey ill prepared to play her part on the field of battle. Devoted to the Constitution which the Legislature had unanimously ratified in December, 1787, this State was ready to exert her influence to peacefully adjudicate the questions pregnant with national disruption. New Jersey had given four of her electoral votes to Abraham Lincoln and a coalition of the Democratic factions had cast the other three for Stephen A. Douglas. On January 29, 1861, the Legislature passed resolutions endorsing Senator Crittenden's compromise plan, or any other constitutional method that might permanently settle the question of slavery. The conservative temper of that body decided "that the government of the United States is a national government, and the union it was designed to perfect is not a mere compact or league; that the Constitution was adopted in a spirit of mutual compromise and concession by the people of the United States and can only be preserved by the constant recognition of that spirit." The Personal Liberty statutes which some of the States had adopted as an offset to the Fugitive Slave Law, were aimed at in a resolution urging States that have obnoxious laws in force which interfere with the constitutional rights of the citizens of other States, either in regard to their persons or property, to repeal the same." Another resolution proposed the calling of a convention of all the States to suggest amendments to the National Constitution that would avert disunion; and finally, Charles S. Olden, Peter D. V room, Robert F. Stockton, Benjamin Williamson, Frederick T. Frelinghuysen, Rodman M. Price, William C. Alexander and Thomas J. Stryker were appointed a committee to confer with Congress and' similar delegates from other commonwealths upon enforcing the plan outlined in these resolutions. They took part in the Peace Conference held at Washington, February 4, 1861, at which twenty-one States were represented and which submitted several constitutional amendments to Congress, but their well-meant efforts were of no avail, for Congress gave little heed to their recommendations, and. on the same day the Confed­erate government was organized at Montgomery, Alabama.

President Lincoln's proclamation calling out seventy-five thousand troops for the three months' service was issued April 15th, two days after the fall of Fort Sumter. New Jersey had no military establishment competent to furnish at a moment's notice the four regiments of seven hundred and eighty men each, the quota assigned to her.

In the language of John Y. Foster, author of "New Jersey and the Rebellion," her militia system "was one of shreds and patches, without organic unity, and almost entirely worthless as a means of defense, or even as a nucleus for a more perfect organization." But she had in Governor Charles S. Olden an executive whose quickness of thought and action went far to make up for these deficiencies. He received the requisition from the national government on April 17th, and instantly issued a proclamation directing all individuals or organizations willing to volunteer to report themselves within twenty days, various banks throughout the State having already placed at his disposal four hundred and fifty-one thousand dollars to provide for the equipment and arming of the troops. At the same time orders were issued to the four generals of divisions to detail each one regiment of ten companies, and at once proceed to the organization of the reserve militia. Under the orders volunteers were to be accepted for three months' service; but if a sufficient number of these did not enlist, the deficiency was to be made up by a draft from the militia. Ardent loyalists, however, came forward in such numbers that within a few days over one hundred companies, equal to ten thousand men, had offered to go to the front. The Camden correspondent of the Philadelphia Public Ledger states that on the evening of April 13th the Stockton Cadets, a Camden militia company, held a meeting at their armory and passed resolutions expressing their loyalty and declaring it to be the duty of all connected with the militia to enroll themselves for the defense of the Stars and Stripes, whereupon all present, twenty-three in number, enlisted.

Arrangements were made for having the armory open nightly for the enlistment of recruits between the ages of eighteen and twenty-one years, with a view of tendering the services of the command to the government. 

THE FIRST WAR MEETING IN CAMDEN

On the 16th of April, 1861, three days after the Confederates fired upon Fort Sumter, at the entrance of Charleston Harbor, a large number of loyal and patriotic citizens of Camden City and County issued the following vigorous and spirited response to the President's proclamation:

" To the President Of the United States:

"The unparalleled events of the last week have revealed to the citizens of the United States, beyond question or the possibility of a doubt, that peaceful reconciliation upon the form of our Con­stitution is repelled and scorned, and secession means, in the hearts of its supporters, both Trea­son and war against our Country and Nation.

" We, therefore, the undersigned Loyal Citizens of the United States, and inhabitants of the city of Camden, in the State of New Jersey, responding to the proclamation of the President of the United States, hereby declare our unalterable determination to sustain the government in its efforts to maintain the honor, the integrity and the existence of our National Union and the perpetuity of the popular Government, and to redress the wrongs already long enough endured; no differences of political opinion; no badge of diversity upon points of party distinction, shall restrain or withhold us in the devotion of all we have or can command to the vindication of the Constitution, the maintenance of the laws and the defense of the Flag Of our Country."

In response to a call, on the 18th of April an enthusiastic meeting was held in the county court-house, which was formed of a large collection of prominent citizens. The court-room was decorated with flags and mottoes. John W. Mickle was chosen president and Samuel C. Harbert and Thomas G. Rowand secretaries. The president addressed the meeting first and Rev. Mr. Monroe offered a prayer. Hon. Thomas P. Carpenter, Thomas B. Atkinson (mayor) and Joseph Painter were appointed a committee on resolutions. Judge Philip J. Grey addressed the meeting, after which the committee adopted a long series of patriotic resolutions. The Washington Grays, Stockton Cadets and the Zouaves marched into the room and were received with cheers, Samuel Hufty read a resolution which was signed by many persons, who immediately formed the Home Brigade. David M. Chambers, Captain Stafford, Benjamin M. Braker, John H. Jones and E. A. Acton each addressed the meeting. James M. Scovel was then called upon and responded in eloquent terms and with patriotic energy. S. H. Grey offered a resolution, which was adopted, that the City Council and the Freeholders of the county be requested to appropriate money for the equipment of persons who may volunteer in defense of the country, and S. H. Grey, James M. Cassady and Joseph Painter were appointed a committee to look after the interests of the resolution. The meeting continued in session until eleven p.m.

On the 22d of April Samuel H. Grey made an address before the Board of Freeholders in a patriotic appeal, soliciting the board to make appropriations for the relief of families of volunteer soldiers. John S. Read offered a resolution favoring the appropriation of five thousand dollars, which was unanimously adopted. On the evening of the 25th the City Council voted four hundred dollars for the same purpose. On the same evening the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Camden collected one hundred and fifty dollars and purchased five hundred Bibles for the volunteer soldiers of Camden County.

The State Bank of Camden loaned twenty-five thousand dollars and the Farmers and Mechanics Bank ten thousand dollars to the Governor of New Jersey to aid in the prosecution of the war. In July, 1861, the County Bible Society sent large installments of Bibles to the Camden County soldiers at Trenton.

On April 16th the Washington Grays, of Camden, held a meeting and resolved to open the armory for recruits. By Saturday, April 20th, these two companies, the Camden Zouaves and the Union Guards were reported ready for service and the Camden Light Artillery organizing. On the 25th the same correspondent wrote that the following com­panies had taken their departure from Camden for Trenton :

Washington Grays, Captain E. Price Hunt. Camden Light Artillery, Captain I. W. Mickle. Stockton Cadets, Captain E. G. Jackson. Camden Zouaves, Captain John R. Cunningham.

And the following from Gloucester City:

Union Guards, Captain Joseph B. Strafford. Anderson Guards, Captain John P. Van Leer.

It was the boast of the Gloucester people that Union township, which had but four hundred voters, sent at this time one hundred and ninety-eight good men to do duty for the cause.

Foster's history asserts that on April 18th, Captain John R. Cunningham tendered the Camden Zouaves, a well-drilled and uniformed company, to the Governor.¹ This organization had been formed under the militia law in the preceding year, when the tour of the principal cities made by Ellsworth's Chicago Zouaves inspired thousands of young men to join companies patterned upon that famous model. It was mustered into the Fourth Regiment, on April 25th, as Company G, under command of Captain Cunningham, First Lieutenant Louis M. Morris and Ensign Joseph L. De La Cour.

The other five companies from Camden County were placed in the same regiment. Captain Hunt's company became Company F ; Captain Van Leer's, Company H; Captain Jackson's, Company C; Captain Strafford's, Company D; and Captain Mickle's, Company E. The two first were mustered on April 25th and the three last on April 27th.

Among the individual offers was that of William B. Hatch, of Camden, who had served in 1859 and 1860 in the cavalry of the Russian army; he was commissioned as adjutant of the Fourth Regiment in the ninety days' service, and subsequently made major of the Fourth (three years') Regiment. Mrs. Hettie K. Painter, of Camden, volunteered as a nurse, and became known to thousands of sick and wounded men for her gentle and efficient ministrations in the hos­pitals of the Army of the Potomac.

On the last day of April the quota of the State was complete, and it was mustered at Trenton as a brigade of four regiments, under command of General Theodore Runyon, the present chancellor of New Jersey. The next day the Governor sent a special messenger to General B. F. Butler, commanding at Annapolis, Md., requesting him to prepare to receive the brigade, which was to be sent through the canal route in consequence of the destruction of the railroad bridges near Baltimore by the Secessionists of Maryland. The men were embarked at Trenton on May 3d, on a fleet of fourteen propellers, and proceeded down the Delaware River and through the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal to Annapolis, which they reached on the night of the 4th.² General Butler ordered its advance to Washington, and on the 5th the First Regiment, with six companies of the Second and nine companies of the Third, started forward in two trains of cars. The first of these trains reached Washington about midnight, and the second at eight o'clock the following m0rning. The same evening the Fourth Regiment and the remaining company of the Third arrived at the capital. The four companies of the Second left at Annapolis, were detailed to guard the telegraph and railroad between Annapolis Junction, and were left without tents and almost without a commissariat for a month.

On May 6th the arrival of the brigade was reported to General Scott, and no camps being provided, the troops went into such quarters as were available in Washington.

On all sides," says Foster, "their arrival was hailed with pleasure. Men felt that now the capital was safe. These three thousand Jerseymen, thoroughly armed and equipped, as no regiments previously arrived, had been and could be relied upon to repel all assaults. New Jersey never stood higher in the estimation of the loyal people of the country than at that juncture, when she sent to the nation's defense the first full brigade of troops that reached the field." On May 7th the command marched past the White House, where it was reviewed by President Lincoln and General Scott. On the 9th the Fourth Regiment moved out to Camp Monmouth, on Meridian Hill, where it was soon joined by the other regiments, and on the 12th the camp was visited by the President and Secretaries Chase and Seward, Mr. Lincoln complimenting the troops on their soldierly appearance. They remained at Camp Monmouth, perfecting their drill and discipline, until the 23d, when the Second, Third and Fourth Regiments (the First following the next day) crossed the Potomac into Virginia, and on the Washington and Alexandria road, at a most important strategic point, constructed a mounted with heavy guns a strong defensive work, which, in honor of their brigadier, they named Fort Runyon. It !vas the first regular fortification built by the national troops. The brigade remained in this vicinity until July 16th, when it was moved forward a few miles, and placed in the First Reserve Division, to which had also been assigned the First, Second and Third New Jersey (three years') Regiments, which had reached the field a few days previous to the movement. The First (three months') Regiment was ordered to a point on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, three miles beyond Springfield, to guard the track repairs. On the same day four hundred and twenty-five men of the Third Regiment were detailed to escort a provision train, and a portion of the Fourth was charged with guarding another section of the railroad. One company of the latter regiment was then guarding the Long Bridge, and still another was on duty at Arlington Mills, while the remainder was ordered to Alexandria with the Second (three months') Regiment. Colonel Taylor, commanding the Third (three years') Regiment, was at the same time instructed to march to a point on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, and during the night following, the First and Second (three years') Regiments were moved forward to Vienna. On the 17th orders were issued to all. the regiments in the command to provide themselves with two days' cooked rations, and on the 8th, General Runyon assumed command of all the troops not on the march to the front.

These dispositions were in view of the battle of Bull Run, which was fought and lost by the Union army on July 21st. The nearest that any of the Jersey troops came to participation in it, was that the First and Second (three years) Regiments and the First (three months) Regiment were marched toward Centreville during the day, and that the two first-named reached the town in season to arrest with fixed bayonets the rush of thousands of panic-stricken fugitives toward Washington, and rally them into something like order. They performed this duty most faithfully and the value of their services was. fully recognized by General McDowell.

On July 24th the Third and Fourth Reg­iments, their term of enlistment having expired, were ordered to report to General Mansfield to be mustered out. The First and Second received the same orders on the following day; and after being formally discharged the brigade returned home to New Jersey, where it was accorded an enthusiastic reception. A majority of the men re-enlisted in the long-term regiments and were bank in the field before they had time to forget a movement of the manual of arms.

It has been estimated that in the early months of the war fully five thousand citizens of New Jersey enlisted in New York, Philadelphia and elsewhere in the regiments of other States. They were bent upon entering the army, and as the three months' quota of New Jersey was already filled, they sought service outside. Whole companies were thus transferred to neighboring States and their identity as Jersey commands thus lost. They cannot now be traced, but it may be mentioned that the renowned Excelsior Brigade of New York embraced many Jersey soldiers in its ranks, An unknown number of Camden County men crossed the river, and in Philadelphia enrolled themselves in commands of the Keystone State.

1. This was the first official tender of a company made in the State. Foster says that the first regimental offer was made on the same day, when Lieutenant-Colonel V. R. Matthews, commanding the First Regiment, Hunterdon Brigade, wrote to the Governor proffering their services. The first individual offer, according to Governor Olden's records, was that of General Joseph W. Revere, of the Morris Brigade, who, in January, 1861, tendered his services in any capacity in which they might be required. This offer was renewed and accepted on April 17th. 

2. They left Trenton without a round of ammunition. Captain Charles P. Smith was sent to New York that day to procure it, but was unsuccessful, until a Mr. Blunt, a dealer on Broadway, agreed to let him have a certain quantity of cartridges and percussion caps on his personal security. He reached Jersey City with a dray-load, notwithstanding the New York authorities had prohibited any ammunition from being taken from the city. There he had a controversy with the railroad officials, who refused to take such freight on a passenger train, but compromised by allowing it to be packed in an iron crate, which was towed a long way astern of the train. At 10.30 that night Captain Smith reached Camden, where a tug was in waiting for him. The flotilla with the brigade was intercepted as it was passing the city; he transferred the crate to the various vessels, and its contents were served out to the men as they went on down the Delaware. 

FIRST BRIGADE THREE YEARS' TROOPS

President Lincoln and his advisors did not long entertain the notion, so prevalent up to, and even after the firing upon of Sumter, that the war would be ended and the Southern Confederacy subdued before the summer was well advanced. April had not indeed run out its course before the President was made, by the logic of events, to comprehend that a long and desperate civil conflict must be prepared for and that it would require a tremendous draft upon the men and money of the nation to save it from total wreck. The day for temporizing and half-way military measures had flown by, and on May 3, 1861, the President called for thirty-nine regiments of infantry and one of cavalry to serve for three years or during the war. Although the number of men thus summoned was so small in comparison with the hosts of later years, the length of the term of enlistment is evidence that the government at last appreciated the magnitude of its task. Governor Olden did not receive the requisition upon New Jersey, which was for three regiments of infantry, until the 17th, More than enough companies were organized and awaiting the mustering officer, and the Governor, in announcing this fact to the War Department, added that "If the occasion required their services, this State would willingly furnish twice as many regiments to serve during the war."

From these companies were formed the First, Second and Third Regiments of the three years' service. They were furnished with camp and garrison equipage by the State, but were armed by the United States. Company E, Captain Charles N. Pelouze, of the First Regiment, Colonel William R. Montgomery, and Company B, Captain Henry C. Gibson, of the Third, Colonel George W. McLean, were Camden County volunteers. The three regiments left Trenton on June 28th, and reported to General Scott at Washington on the following day. Their movements up to and on the day of the battle of Bull Run have been recorded in the history of the three months' men. After that engagement the First and Second went into camp near Alexandria, and thither the Third was ordered from Fairfax, where it. had been posted during the battle.

On July 24th Governor Olden was notified that the government would accept five additional regiments, " to be taken, as far as convenient, from the three months' men and officers just discharged; and to be organized, equipped and sent forward as fast as single regiments are ready, on the same terms as were those already in service." The Fourth Regiment, Colonel James H. Simpson, with which William B. Hatch, of Camden, went out as major and was promoted to colonel, was mustered on August 20th, and, with Captain William Hexamer's battery, was forwarded to the front on the 21st. It comprised in part four full companies raised in Camden County as follows: A, Captain Charles Meves; F, Captain Napoleon B. Aaronson ;G, Captain Henry M. Jewett; and H, Captain John Reynolds. The regiment camped with the First, Second and Third near Alexandria, and the four were early in August combined as the First New Jersey Brigade and placed under the command of that illustrious and dauntless soldier, General Philip Kearny, who had already distinguished himself as a fighter in Mexico, Algeria and Italy, and against the Indians on the frontier, and whose death at the battle of Chantilly, August 30, 1862, was to deprive the army of a commander in whom military skill and personal courage combined to form the ideal brigadier. In recalling the grand reputation which this brigade achieved under Kearny and other chiefs, it is a most proper cause for local pride that Camden County contributed to its ranks six full companies that shared in its perils, its victories and its honors. They were among the men who had so endeared themselves to his lion heart, that when he was offered the command of Sumner's division he refuscl1 to accept it because he would not be permitted to take his Jersey regiments with him.

The Third Regiment received its baptism of fire in an ambuscade in which it fell at Cloud's Mills on August 29th, and on September 29th, Kearny had the whole brigade out for a reconnaissance of the enemy's lines at. Mason's Hill. On October 14th a detachment of the First emptied several saddles of a Confederate cavalry force which it encountered, and lost three or four killed. After spending the winter inactively the brigade, which was attached to General William B. Franklin's division, was, on March 7, 1862, pushed towards Manassas, the First Regiment, which had been the last to leave Centreville on the retreat of July 21, 1861, having the honor of being the first. to occupy the place on the second advance.

On the 10th the brigade colors were unfurled over the abandoned Confederate works at Manassas, eight companies of the Third leading the advance. On McClellan's preparations to transfer the army to the Virginia Peninsula the Jersey regiments, which had been placed in the First Division of the First Army Corps, moved to Catlett's Station, where they remained from April 7th to the 11th, when they retraced their steps to Alexandria and embarked for York Point, York River, on the 17t.h. May 5th they advanced to West Point under command of Colonel Taylor, Kearny having been promoted to the command of the division, and on the night of that day the First Regiment captured at. a charge and held a position which two New York regiments had proved unable to maintain. Its gallantry was testified to by a correspondent. of the New York Times, who wrote that "The line was as firm as a division in a column at. review. Colonel McAllister, when the enemy broke, bravely pursued them some distance. This firm and determined movement decided the result, and the rebels made good their retreat."

These minor plays on the great chess-board of the campaign had fitted Taylor and his men for the first of the important battles in which they were destined to enter. On June 27th they left camp on the south side of the Chickahominy River, and crossing that dank and sluggish stream at Woodbury's bridge, plunged into the thick of the fight at Gaines' Mills, where Fitz-John Porter's and Mc­Call's lines were giving way under the impact of the enemy's pressure. Swinging full into the face of the Confederate musketry and artillery fire, the brigade fought the rebels at a distance of four hundred yards and was badly hurt, until Taylor ordered a charge that drove them out of the woods into an open field, where he met their reserves and was compelled to fall back. The Fourth Regiment, four companies of which were Camden men, was sent into the woods by order of one of McClellan's aids, and there sustained the brunt of a fight at close quarters. Five hundred of its number were taken' prisoners. Colonel Simpson was one of the unfortunates, and in letters dated from prison in Richmond he thus described the action and sequel,

"The regiment was posted in the wood to sustain the center in the battle near Gaines' Mill, and nobly did it hold its ground until about an hour after the right and left wings of the army had fallen back. Mine and the Eleventh Connecticut were the last to leave the front, and only did so when we found that the rest of the army had given way and we were literally surrounded by the infantry and batteries of the Confederate forces. Being in the woods, and. trusting to our su­perior officers to inform us when to retreat, and not being able to see, on account of the woods, what was going on towards our right and left- we continued fighting an hour, probably, after every other regiment had left the ground. The consequence was inevitable. We were surrounded by ten times our number, and though we could have fought until every man of us was slain, yet humanity, and, as I think, wisdom, dictated that we should at last yield."

In a subsequent letter to his wife, Colonel Simpson stated that fifty-three enlisted men were. killed and one hundred and twenty-one wounded, out of the six hundred whom he took into action. Captain Meves of Company A, was killed, and Lieutenant Charles Meyer, of the sallie company, wounded. The brigade had gone into the fight with twenty­eight hundred in its ranks, and but nine hundred and sixty-five answered to their names when the roll was called in camp at midnight. 'The First Regiment lost twenty­one killed, including Major David Hatfield, seventy-eight wounded and sixty missing. The Third had thirty-four killed, one hundred and thirty-six wounded and thirty-five missing. Lieutenant-Colonel McAllister, in his report of the participation of the former command in the battle, spoke of Captain Pelouze, of the Camden company, as one of whom "too much cannot be said in praise."

During the night after the battle the shattered brigade recrossed to the right bank of the Chickahominy, and at midnight of the 28th took up the line of retreat by way of Savage Station and White Oak Swamp to James River. A sharp fight occurred at White Oak Creek, where the Jerseymen occupied a position of peril between the opposing lines, and were lucky to escape damage by hugging the ground as the shells flew over them, They passed Malvern Hill on July 1st without being called into the battle then raging, and reached Harrison's Landing, on the James River, on the morning of the 2d.

On August 24th the brigade landed at Alexandria, McClellan having abandoned the Peninsula and transferred his army by water to the Potomac. Three days afterward it was pushed forward to Bull Run Bridge and the old battlefield. The First Regiment had three hundred men fit for duty; the Second, two hundred and fifty; the Third, three hundred and seventy-five; and the Fourth, seventy-five. On this day, the 27th, the opening of Pope's battle of Bull Run, it fought for several hours a more superior force of Stonewall Jackson's corps, losing nine killed and three hundred and ten wounded, missing and prisoners. Colonel Taylor was severely wounded, and died on September 1st. Compelled to relinquish the field, the brigade retired to Cloud's Mills, but in a week was on the march again with McClellan's pursuit of Lee into Maryland, Colonel A. T. A. Torbert having succeeded Taylor in command. On September 14th it won the battle of Crampton's Gap by a splendid charge up the side of a steep acclivity, capturing enough Springfield rifles to arm the Fourth Regiment, which had been equipped with smooth bores. This regiment, which had lost its colors at Gaines' Mill, captured two stands of rebel colors at Crampton's Gap. At the battle of Antietam, on the 11th, it relieved Sumner's corps at midnight and was not actually engaged, although it was for six hours exposed to a hot artillery fire. At Fredericksburg, December 13th and 14th, it saw hard fighting on the left of the line, and Colonel William B. Hatch was fatally wounded in leading the Fourth Regiment to an assault. Previous to this the Fifteenth and Twenty-fourth  Regiments had been added to the brigade and it had been placed in the Sixth Corps. At Chancellorsville, on May 3, 1863, it was for two hours and a half engaged with Longstreet's veterans near Salem Church, and the casualties footed up five hundred and eleven men killed, wounded and missing.

In the battle of Gettysburg it embraced the First, Second, Third and Fifteenth Regiments and Hexamer's battery, the Fourth Regiment being on provost duty at Washington. It was on the picket line during the decisive fighting of July 3d, and on the 4th joined in the pursuit of Lee.

While Grant was marshaling the army for the grand advance, the Tenth New Jersey Regiment was assigned to the brigade. Company A, Captain Isaac W. Mickle; Company E, Captain George W. Scott; Company H, Captain John R. Cunningham, and Company I, Captain John Coates were recruited in Camden. The brigade had three-days of fighting in the Wilderness during the first week of May, 1864, and on the 10th took part in the celebrated charge on the Conferate works near Spottsylvania, in which a thousand prisoners and several guns were captured. On the 12th it was in the furious assault of that day and the subsequent struggle over the rebel entrenchments, "the intense fury, heroism and horror of which," Edward A. Pollard wrote, "it is impossible to describe." This was the awful and stubborn contest in "the bloody angle," and no command suffered a heavier loss than did the five Jersey regiments. They were driven from and retook the Galt House on the 14th, and until the 18th were participants in skirmishes along the North Anna and Tolopotomy Rivers. At Cold Harbor, June 1st to 3d, they were constantly under fire. The terms of service of the First and Third Regiments had expired on May 23d, but they remained at the front to take part in the battle of Cold Harbor. They reached Trenton on June 7th, and were mustered out on  June 23d. Of the two thousand and sixty-eight officers and enlisted men who had left the State capital on June 28, 1861, only three hundred and forty returned for muster out, of whom one hundred and thirty-nine belonged to the First and two hundred and one to the Third Regiment. The Fourth, with the exception of the men who had re-enlisted, returned from the front August 19, 1864, and was mustered out on the next day; it came back with four hundred and twenty­four privates and officers, while it had taken one thousand and thirty-four to the field three years before. The re-enlisted men of the First and Third, which ceased to exist as organizations, were at first transferred to the Fourth and Fifteenth, but were subsequently consolidated into the First, Second and Third Battalions, and, with the Fourth, Tenth and Fifteenth Regiments from that time until February, 1865, constituted the First Brigade. The Fourth thus kept up its organization through its re-enlisted men, and thus has an unbroken history until the termination of the war. 

In July, 1864, the brigade was sent with the Sixth Corps to check Early in the Shenandoah Valley, and on August 17th delayed his advance for six hours at Winchester. On September 19th it was in the direct assault upon the rebel front at Opequan, and was gallantly instrumental in sending the enemy "whirling up the valley." On the 22d, at Fisher's Hill, it repeated its achievement, and at the battle of Cedar Creek, on October 19th, it formed on the left of the line and fought steadily to maintain its ground, but was finally overwhelmed and forced to retire. When Sheridan, however, arrived upon the scene and turned defeat into victory it reformed and did its duty in the charge that repulsed Early and ended the war in the valley. On December 1st it rejoined the Army of the Potomac; April 2, 1865, it helped to take the Confederate entrenchments on the Boydton Plank Road, in front of Petersburg, and it was close to Appomattox when Lee's surrender was made. Thence it was ordered to Danville, Va., and not until May 24th did it march through Richmond on its way northward. On June 2d it encamped five miles from Washington, where the regiments were mustered out. At Trenton they were dissolved, and this scarred and storied command ceased to exist.