USA > New Jersey > Cumberland County > Historic days in Cumberland County, New Jersey, 1855-1865 : political and war time reminiscences > Part 13
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Patriotic records indeed,, yet there was another family in Cumberland County, which gave more than any other to the Government which they loved. Near the village of Shiloh there resided a family of sterling qualities of mind and body. Born upon a farm in one of the most productive and peaceful sections of the State, rising with the birds at the early dawn, laboring in the fields by day, in the evening participating with the good men and women of the neigh- borhood in the intellectual and religious work of the noble Seventh Day Baptist communion at Shiloh, of such were the Randolphs. The young men had heard the story of Robert Halford, the fugitive slave, and listened to the resohitions of protest passed by the earnest company as- sembled in the Session House. In the night time they drew inspiration from the starry heavens, and, believing in the great Architect who rules and overrules, they became stal- warts for the righteous cause of the down-trodden and op-
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WAR TIME PICTURES-ING1-142 The Brave Randolph and Swinney Brothers Azor E. Swinney Co. H. 3d N J. Reg. Cav. Vols. Sylvester W. F. Randolph Co. F. 3d N. J. Reg. Inf. Vols. Lemuel A. Randolph Co. D. luth N. J. Reg Inf. Vols. (191)
Alfred T. Randolph Second-Lieut. Co. B. 10th N. J. Reg. Inf. Vols.
John G. Swinney Co. K, 12th N. J. Reg. Inf. Vols.
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pressed. At the first sound of the cannon they came for- ward with the spirit of the Greeks at Thermopylae. First went Sylvester W. F. Randolph with the "Cumberland Greys." in a few brief months to die in action at Gaines Farm. Va., June 27, 1862. Torn by shot and shell. his life blood quickly ebbed away, and when comrades sought to carry him from the field he protested that they should leave him to his fate and succor those for whom there was yet hope. With streaming eyes and bruised hearts they buried him where he fell. Then went Alfred T. Randolph in Company D, Tenth Regiment, to leave his good right arm on the amputation table, the result of a rebel bullet in the final struggle before Petersburg. Then followed Lemuel A. Randolph in the same company and same regiment. The record says: "Died of wounds re- ceived in action at Cold Harbor, Va., June 1, 1864. Buried at Baptist Cemetery, Shiloh, New Jersey." Three noble brothers-two gave their lives that the nation might live, falling with their faces to the foe. The other gave an arm, and returned to tell the story of the battles fought and vic- tories won on Southern fields. What more could one family do? What greater service has any family rendered?
Of such material were the soldiers of Cumberland County. The boys in our public schools may read the his- torie page from remote ages, but they will never find the superiors of the young manhood who fought under our flag in the potential armies that saved the Union in the tremendous conflict of '61, '62, '63. '64, '65. They did not fight for aggrandizement of territory, for glory, or for the perpetuation of monarchy. Neither were they forced to fight because of the mailed hand of arbitrary rulers. Vol- unteers, not conscripts, they fought for humanity and the preservation of civil and religious liberty. Caesar or Char- lemagne, Hannibal or Henry of Navarre, Napoleon or Wellington never commanded such intrepid, such brave. stich invincible legions. The nation looked on and won- dered while patriotic Americans changed the course of his-
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tory and out of the carnage of many bloody fields brought forth a new nation dedicated to humanity and a new birth of liberty. No more was the starry banner to be called a flaunting lie. The brave volunteers were to put a new brightness to its stripes and add a new glory to its stars.
It may have been forgotten by even the oldest citizen, but it is a fact, that Bridgeton was represented in the famous sea fight in Hampton Roads, Virginia, fought Saturday and Sunday, March 8th and 9th, 1862. This battle changed the character of naval architecture, and from it dates the era of armor-plated ships of war. The Merrimac was a wooden vessel, built at the Norfolk Navy Yard, not yet completed by the United States Government, when the Confederates seized the yard and naval stores at that port. The latter utilized the ship by plating her with railroad iron, thereby making a sheath impenetrable by shot or shell from the small calibre guns with which war vessels of the day were armed. In the roadstead, March 8th, lay the U. S. war vessels Cum- berland, Congress and Minnesota, old-time frigates. with deck upon deck, and row upon row of cannon-formidable, as naval warfare had heretofore been conducted, but there- after to become obsolete through and by the appearance of armored ships. They were noble-looking craft, of the type of those upon whose decks John Paul Jones carried the first American flag to victory off Flamborough Head, in the North Sea, in the autumn of 1779, during the memorable en- gagement with the Serapis, the finest ship in the service of his Britannic Majesty, George III.
But with the advent of the Monitor and the Merrimac, the days of wooden ships were over. On the morning of March 8th, the Merrimac appeared and, making direct for the Cumberland, opened a terrific hail of iron on that ves- sel. The crew of the Cumberland, loyal, brave, worked the ship's batteries with rapidity, sending broadside after broad- side into the iron monster before them. Blood ran down the decks in torrents, and hundreds of gallant tars fell to rise no more. The defence was unequal to the attack; so, in
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blood and carnage, the Cumberland went down to a watery grave. On the deck of the doomed ship were two former citizens of Bridgeton. One of them, Rev. John L. Lenhart, Chaplain in the Navy, pastor of the Commerce Street Meth- odist Episcopal Church, 1840-1841, was last seen going into the cabin. Who knows but what his feet were turned thence because of the habit of prayer which had been his custom from early childhood? While the beloved Lenhart prayed, the Master took him home. The gate of heaven, to which he had so often pointed the fathers and mothers in good, old Commerce Street Church, had ushered in his gentle spirit. With him it-
"'Twere sweet, indeed, to close our eyes, with those we cher- ish near,
And, wafted upwards by their sighs, soar to some calmer sphere ;
But, whether on the scaffold high or in the battle's van.
The fittest place where man can die is where he dies for man!"
The blood-dyed waters of Hampton Roads were his winding sheet, and there he sleeps, waiting the Resurrection of the dead.
Some there were of the crew of the Cumberland who escaped death when the ship went down. Among the few in a crew of more than 300 men, was William Clark, of Bridgeton, who jumped overboard, was picked up by a boat and saved. He lived to serve in 1864-65 as a private soldier in Co. H, Third New Jersey Cavalry, and was honorably discharged. The great conflict of the Monitor, with the Merrimac, occurred the following day after the wreck of the Cumberland. Sunday morning, March 9th, 1862. a puff of smoke seaward, announced the coming of John Erricsson's battery known as the "Monitor." The latter looked like a cheese-box mounted on a raft-the deck being freeboard and almost level with the sea, upon which was an iron-clad turret containing two cannon from which could be hurled 200-pound projectiles. The Merrimac came
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IN CUMBERLAND COUNTY, NEW JERSEY
gayly out to meet the stranger seeming to say with jaunty air. "I have destroyed the Cumberland, rammed the Con- gress and sent the Minnesota high and dry upon the shore, who are you to dispute with me the supremacy of the sea?" The battle opened with fierce attack on either side-it ended in victory for the little Monitor, which at an opportune moment had appeared and restored the prestige of the old flag never previously lost on land or sea.
The Bridgeton ladies having organized early in 1861 their Millville sisters took up the work of assistance Sep- tember 14th, 1862. Most of their efforts were devoted to the needy and suffering soldiers in the various hospitals. Six pieces of muslin were given by the Millville merchants for this purpose. One hundred yards of muslin and twelve pounds of yarn were contributed by Richard D. Wood, cot- ton goods manufacturer. The yarn was speedily fashioned by the ladies into substantial socks. One good mother in Israel, in her 72d year, whose health would not permit her to attend the meetings of the society, knit sixteen pairs of socks, besides making eighteen shirts. Pity 'tis that her name has been lost. the local papers failing to chronicle it. While the Millville ladies were industriously engaged in this manner, the Bridgeton ladies were sending box after box of clothing and eatables to the front. The dying soldier upon the cot in hospital or on the battlefield wet with tears the pillow which the patriotic mothers and sisters had shaped in the sewing societies at home. Visions of angelic faces were his as he passed from time to eternity. Who can measure the value of the noble service rendered by the splendid women of Cumberland County in that great epoch of the war for the Union? In that accounting day before the Throne the story will be fully told. Then and not till then will their glorious work and its glorious re- sults receive the reward of those who "in His Name gave the cup of water. and who visited Him when sick and in prison."
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The Bridgeton papers editorially were speaking out strong and emphatic for the Union in the year 1863. The Chronicle, publishe 1 by George F. Nixon, and Robert B. Potter, was dealing sturdy blows each and every week in behalf of the Union cause, and was ably edited. Its com- ments on the actions of New Jersey Regiments in the field and the individual bravery of the soldiers from Cumberland County, were especially reliable because editors Nixon and Potter had official knowledge of the movements (editor Potter being a lieutenant in the 24th Regiment) and per- sonal acquaintance with most of the men who had gone from our midst to face the perils of death on ensanguined fields. The Chronicle, just after the battle at Chancellorsville, had this to say concerning the conduct of two of the Jersey Regiments which were more largely than others composed of sons of the county of Cumberland :
"At Chancellorsville the 24th New Jersey did not lose as heavily as some other regiments. It behaved beauti- fully, led by Colonel Robertson. Major Fithian, acting as aid to General French, behaved in a most gallant and soldierly manner through the whole fight."
"The conduct of the 25th New Jersey in the recent conflict on the Nansemond. near Suffolk, Virginia, is spoken of in high terms of praise. They formed in con- nection with the 103d New York, the right wing of the at- tack, and are described as doing their work splendidly. driving the enemy back slowly but surely.
"It gives us special pleasure to make this statement, inasmuch as the Fairfield Company from this county, Cap- tain Garretson's, belongs to this regiment. There are many other Cumberland and Cape May boys in the 25th."
While the town of Bridgeton and the western town- ships of Cumberland County produced remarkable families of citizen-soldiers to whom reference has been already made, the Townships of Fairfield and Downe to the south along the Cohansey and by the Delaware Bay were pro-
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WAR TIME PICTURES -1-61-1- 3 Five Brave Young Men from Fairfield Killed in Battle
William B. Elmer Benjamin Sockwell Co. D. Mth N. J. Reg. Inf. Vols.
Co. H. 24th N. J. Reg. Inf. Vols.
Albert Jones, Co. G, '1th N. J. Reg. Inf. Vols. Theodore W. Elmer
Lewis S. Elmer
Co. G, 12th N. J. Reg. Inf. Vols. Co. H, 3d N. J. Reg. Cav. Vols.
1971
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portionately patriotic. When the flag at Sumter was in- sulted the farmer boys and oystermen came boldy. bravely forward.
In the gallant contingent from Fairfield came the Elmer family to take a leading part in the great battles for human liberty. Theodore and .Ann Elmer gave three sons, as fol- lows: To Company E. 12th Regiment, Lucius Q. C. Elmer, who served honorably and was transferred to Hancock's Veteran Reserve Corps-to Company H, 24th New Jersey, William B. Elmer, Corporal, who died at Division Hospital, near Falmouth. Virginia, of wounds received in action at Fredericksburg, December 13th, 1862-to Company H, 3d New Jersey Cavalry, Theodore W. Elmer, Corporal, died in the prison at Salisbury, North Carolina, January 13th, 1865, a prisoner of war. To this list of loyal Elmers may be added the name of Lewis S. Elmer, son of Owen Elmer, Company G, 12th New Jersey, killed in action at Chancellorsville, Virginia, May 3, 1863.
Then came the Williams family! Daniel Williams was a leading farmer and business man of the county. He re- sided on a farm just below Herring Row schoolhouse, upon which he raised a large and interesting family. For several years he was President of the Bridgeton and Philadelphia Steamboat Company, the corporation which built the swift, beautiful steamer City of Bridgeton, placing that boat upon the Cohansey River in tri-weekly trips to and from Phila- delphia. Mr. Williams was a robust defender of the Union, and his heart beat strong for the success of the great cause. Erecting a tall pole on his farm he hoisted the Stars and Stripes, declaring that the colors should never come down from that pole until his three boys, who had enlisted for the war, returned to him dead or alive. His was the spirit of the Spartan mother when she said: "My son (handing him the shield). return with it or upon it." First, went William H. Williams in Company F. 3d New Jersey, the favorite Cumberland Greys, early in '61, participating in the many battles in which that company and regiment took heroic part. James P. Williams followed, enlisting in Com-
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pany K, 12th New Jersey, becoming Corporal, Sergeant and First Lieutenant by rapid promotion. James was on the firing line at Gettysburg and served meritoriously until the close of the war. Later Benjamin Frank Williams joined Company D, 25th New Jersey, rising from Sergeant to Second Lieutenant previous to the expiration of his term of enlistment.
From Fairfield also went a son of Sherrard Sockwell. veteran Democrat, who loved his country above and beyond his party. Benjamin F. Sockwell, Company D. 25th New Jersey, died at Stanton United States Army General Hospital. Washington, D. C., February 5th, 1863, wounds received in action at Fredericksburg, Va .; leg amputated. Many were the patriotic addresses made on Decoration Days in later years by Mr. Sockwell, in remembrance of his sollier son.
Albert B. Jones, Company G. 24th New Jersey. another Fairfield boy, sealed his devotion to his country, dying at the hospital near Fredericksburg. Va .. of wounds received in action at Fredericksburg. December 13th. 1862.
The Union fleet fought the battle of Mobile Bay, Au- gust 5. 1864. Admiral David Farragut. a naval hero of the John Paul Jones stripe, captured the fortifications in the harbor of Mobile known as Morgan. Powell and Gaines, after running through a field of torpedoes and a terrific storm of shot and shell. During the height of the battle Farragut directed operations of the fleet from the masthead of his flagship, the "Hartford." to which he had been lashed. The night previous to the engagement the Admiral sent a telegram to the authorities at Washington which read: "I am going into Mobile in the morning, if God is my leader. as I hope He is." Early the following day he appeared upon the quarter-deck and said to his flag officer: "What direc- tion is the wind blowing?" The officer answered by saying that it was from a favorable quarter. "Will it blow our smoke in the face of the enemy?" The reply was: "It will." "Then," said Admiral Farragut. "I think we had better go
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in." This was the word of command from the veteran leader and the fleet went in, its decks slippery with the blood of patriots, but with colors flying to the great glory of the American Navy and the crushing defeat of the Confederates.
The news of the successful issue of the conflict in Mo- bile Bay roused the loyal North with a great wave of en- thusiasm, and Farragut and his men were the heroes of the 'hour. Two families in the town of Bridgeton were repre- sented in that great naval battle, and intensely interested in the news which might bring joy or sadness to their homes. Ezbon C. Lambert, son of William Lambert, was an officer on the gunboat "Itasca" of the West Gulf Squadron. Wil- liam T. DuBois was aboard the dispatch boat "Glasgow." Fortunately both were alive anl unscathed. Ezbon was enrolled in 186t with his brother, William S. Lambert. as a musician in the regimental band of the Third New Jer- sey, serving in that position until 1863. Re-enlisting in the United States Navy, he remained to the close of the war. While the fleet lay in Mobile Bay, one day the Admiral's gig came alongside the "Itasca," and up the ladder came Farragut. A man of medium stature, with round, smooth face, fatherly in appearance. he stepped upon the ship's deck with a familiarity which made him a favorite with both officers and men. With a glance at the twenty-pounder on the forward deck, he turned to the commander of the "Itasca" and said: "Captain Brown, don't you think that gun is a little too light, and hadn't you better go over to Pensacola and get a thirty-pounder?" The kindly question was a command which Captain Brown acted upon promptly. How beautifully the dear old Admiral put the orders of the clay and the hour none but those who served under him can ever know. Ever mindful of the wants of his subordinates, ever solicitous for their proper care and treatment. the men loved him. Modest, unassuming, all heart, all soul, was David Farragut. The Russian Admiral who thirty years later deposited a wreath of flowers on Farragut's tomb in Greenwood Cemetery, said while standing o'er his grave :
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WAR TIME PICTURES-1-61-1865 Daniel Williams, Fairfield, and His Soldier Sons
B. Frank Williams
Daniel Williams William H. Williams Second-Lieut. Co. D, 25th N. J.
Co. F (" Cumberland Greys " id N. J. Reg. Inf. Vols. Reg. Inf. Vols.
James P. Williams, First-Lieut. Co. G. 12th N. J. Reg. Inf. Vols.
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"Admiral Farragut was the noblest, the bravest, the best naval commander the world has known."
The memory of that noble commander is a sweet fra- grance which will linger with the American people so long as the Republic shall endure or the historic page shall remain to tell the story of the victory won on the waters of Mobile Bay.
The Union League removed its quarters from Gross- cup's Hall and took rooms in Sheppard's building, just beyond the Commerce street bridge. An executive commit- tee composed of the following members was named: Alex- ander Stratton, Providence Ludlam, Robert C. Nichols, Stephen G. Porch, Alphonso Woodruff. Theophilus G. Compton, Paul T. Jones. Hon. John T. Nixon, president ; Morton Mills, vice-president, with Charles D. Burroughs as treasurer.
The rooms were very comfortably furnished and in them much zealous work was done during the campaign of 1864 for the strengthening of the Union cause-and the re-election of Mr. Lincoln so far as Cumberland County was concerned. The efforts of that patriotic body of citi- zens, irrespective of political party, brought splendid re- sults.
Bridgeton was the pivot on which great political move- ments revolved in the autumn of '64. The first to open the ball were the Democrats of the First Congressional District. Delegates from every county in the district came to the county seat on the morning of Wednesday, September 14, to take part in the proceedings of a convention to be held at the Court House. Samuel J. Bayard, of Gloucester County, was selected chairman. I. V. Dickinson, of Salem County, was unanimously nominated for Congress, M. R. Hamilton and Abram Browning, of Camden, declining.
Mr. Dickinson addressed the convention in a very radi-
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cal speech, which was loudly applauded. One of his para- graphis was as follows:
"But let us patiently wait a little longer ; a change will surely come. Our chosen chief, the great and good Mc- Clellan, will soon be President, and directed by Him whose aid he has invoked, establish peace, restore the Union, and give each State a full guarantee of all its constitutional rights. Let us not be deceived by those who would stir up strife and create divisions. There is but one issue before the people, and this is distinct and clear. The Democratic party is in favor of a speedy peace, the condition of which is the restoration of the Union. This is clearly expressed in the Chicago platform. General Mcclellan in his letter of acceptance endorses this doctrine in most emphatic lan- guage. Mr. Lincoln in his letter 'to all to whom it may concern,' makes the abandonment of slavery the doctrine of peace. This is the issue before the people, and there can be no other. If we triumph there will be peace ; if we are defeated this war will still continue."
In the same issue of the local paper which published the action of the Democratic Convention the following edi- torial appeared :
"General Sheridan has won a great victory in the Shenandoah Valley over Early, the rebel general. Win- chester is in our possession ; 2,500 prisoners, five guns, and nine battle flags were captured : 5,000 rebel dead and wounded left on the field. Truly the God of battles is smil- ing upon us. Mobile, Atlanta and Winchester are on all tongues and gladden all loyal hearts."
And yet in the face of these great Union victories the Democratic party of 1864 was ready to make peace with rebels in the field with the assurance that slavery should be retained.
In contradiction of the ignominious peace proposals of the Democrats were the noble sentiments expressed by Mr. Lincoln in the closing sentences of his message to Congress, December 6. 1864. The magnificent character of Abraham
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Lincoln was never more beautifully illustrated than when he said :
"In presenting the abandonment of armed resistance to the national authority on the part of the insurgents as the only indispensable condition to ending the war on the part of the Government, I retract nothing heretofore said as to slavery. I repeat the declaration made a year ago, that while I remain in my present position I shall not attempt to retract or modify the emancipation proclamation, nor shall I return to slavery any person who is free by the terms of that proclamation or by any of the acts of Congress. If the people shall by whatever mode or means, make it an executive duty to re-enslave such persons. another, and not I, must be their instrument to perform it.
"In stating a single condition of peace I mean simply to say that the war will cease on the part of the Govern- ment whenever it shall have ceased on the part of those who began it."
The Republicans of the First Congressional District met in convention at the Court House in Bridgeton, Tues- day, October 5, 1864. It was the most enthusiastic political convention ever held in South Jersey. None of its prede- cessors could hold a candle to it-none of its successors have equaled it. At half-past 9 o'clock in the morning a pro- cession formed in front of the National Union Republican headquarters in Sheppard's Hall, Commerce Street, headed by the Bridgeton Brass Band. It marched by way of Com- merce and Laurel Streets to the West Jersey Railroad depot on Irving Avenue to meet the delegations from Atlantic, Camden, Salem, Cape May and Gloucester Counties, then en route for the convention. Special trains from Camden, Salem and Cape May arrived at the depot about twenty min- utes past To o'clock, with some three thousand shouting Re- publicans, consisting largely of marching clubs. With a dozen bands of music, flags and banners flying, the proces- sion began a triumphal march out Church Street to Com-
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PATRIOTIC PREACHERS OF BRIDGETON __ ' -17
Rev. Isaiah D. King Pastor Trinity M. E. Church Rev. Joseph Hubbard Pastor Second Pres. Church Rev. Charles H. Whitecar Presiding Elder M. E. Church Rev. Henry M. Stuart Recto St. Andrew's P. E. Church
Rev. James M. Challis Retired- Baptist Church Rev. Charles E. Hill Pastor Commerce Street M. E. Church
Rev. James Brown Pastor First Baptist Church Rev. Gasper R. Gregory Pastor First Pres. Church Rev. John W. Hickman Fastor Commerce St. M. E. Church Rev. Richard Thorn Pastor Trinity M. E. Church
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merce Street. down Commerce to the bridge, up Commerce Street hill to Franklin, and thence to the Court House. Paraders from Bridgeton joined the visiting delegations, to- gether with hundreds of persons from the townships of Deerfield, Hopewell, Stow Creek, Downe, Fairfield, farmers in wagons wreathed with evergreens and bearing banners with inscriptions. One of the transparencies from Stow Creek bore the following bit of rural poetry :
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