USA > New Jersey > Essex County > Newark > Narratives of Newark (in New Jersey) from the days of its founding > Part 21
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Having served its term of three months, the First New Jersey Volunteers returned soon after the disastrous Battle of Bull Run, fought on July 21, 1861. Orders were issued for mustering the regiment out of the United States service, which took place on July 31, at Newark. Colonel Johnson then organized the Eighth New Jersey Volunteers, and pre- sented it for muster on September 14, 1861, for three years' duty. This was prolonged, however, to June 4, 1865, the regiment having participated in nearly forty engagements. Colonel Johnson was wounded at the Battle of Williamsburg, on May 5, 1862, and on March 19, 1863, resigned his com- mission. Lieutenant-Colonel John Ramsey, of the Fifth New Jersey, who was promoted to the vacancy, continued in com- mand till the end of the war.
Company F, of the First New Jersey Regiment, organized Battery B, Second Artillery, the muster taking place in
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August, 1861. First Lieutenant John E. Beam was com- missioned captain. He acquitted himself with bravery in the Seven Days' Fight before Richmond, and was killed in action at the Battle of Malvern Hill, on July 1, 1862.
The City Battalion responded to Lincoln's call for 300,000 three years' men in May, 1861. Often it paraded on Inde- pendence Day, Washington's Birthday, and for target prac- tice festivities in the autumn. A recruiting office was opened and the battalion was soon a part of the Second New Jersey Volunteers. Now it was to test its mettle upon the battlefield.
The regiment, officered and equipped by May 18, was mustered at Camp Olden, Trenton, on May 26, and left the State on June 28, 1861. Officers and men in large numbers reentered the army when their service expired, with over forty battles to the regiment's credit.
During the summer and autumn of 1861 the cry of "on to Richmond" from Northern cities failed to awake the Federal authorities into action. The movement which resulted in the Seven Days' Fight was planned, however, as the spring campaign of 1862 and the objective was the capture of the city, where the capitol of the Confederacy was located.
Colonel Isaac M. Tucker, thirty years of age, was commandant of the Second Hon. William S. Pen- nington New Jersey Regiment. While gallantly leading several of his companies into action at the Battle of Gaines Farms, on June 27, 1862, he received a mortal wound, and died within a few minutes. His re- mains were interred on the battlefield in an unknown grave.
General Philip Kearny, foremost of the patriotic citizens of Newark, was commissioned commandant of the First New Jersey Brigade on May 17, 1861, promoted Major-General of the Third Division, Third Army Corps, Army of the Po- tomac, and on September 1, 1862, was killed at the Battle of Chantilly. He was idolized by the men of his command
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who affectionately spoke of him as "Fighting Phil Kearny." He gained distinction in the Mexican War, where he lost an arm.
Riding out of the Union lines at sunset on the night of September 1, near Chantilly, for the purpose of reconnoiter- ing, a group of Confederates was encountered by the General. Wheeling his horse, he endeavored to escape, but he was pierced with a bullet and instantly killed. The body was re- covered, brought north and buried in Trinity Church Yard, New York. The remains were exhumed and half a century later reinterred in Arlington Cemetery, where a handsome memorial is erected over his grave. Kearny was a son of Mars. He was a born fighter, a disciplinarian and an ideal officer.
Independence Day in 1862 was tinged with sadness. Regi- ments in which well-known men of Essex County were commissioned and enlisted had suffered severe losses in the Seven Days' Fight. They who escaped the fire of bat- tle were in retreat while many of their comrades were sleep- ing in eternal rest, prisoners in the enemy's lines or lying on beds of pain in hospitals.
Women responded nobly to the call for service. Articles of clothing, delicacies for the hospital equipment, and boxes of comforts for the "boys in blue" in camp and in the navy were prepared in generous quantities.
President Lincoln issued another call for 300,000 men to serve three years or during the war, on July 7. Another sacrifice of Newark homes was asked and liberally furnished.
An available rendezvous was on the east side of Roseville Avenue, north of Orange Street, where a large field, having a gentle slope to the Morris Canal, accommodated an encamp- ment of several thousand men. The canal provided bathing facilities and was used in the morning, after reveille, by all the men not on the sick report.
The Thirteenth New Jersey Volunteers was ordered re- cruited at the post, officially named Camp Frelinghuysen, and Colonel Cornelius Van Vorst placed in command, on
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July 22. The nation, now in peril, needed every recruit. The Confederates were flushed with success while a depressed feeling spread over the loyal North. McClellan's march to Richmond proved a failure, the Union army having suffered severe losses.
During the summer of 1862 Camp Frelinghuysen was the centre of Essex County life. Thousands of persons visited there daily. Women, boys and girls trudged over the hot
Home of Hon. William Pennington on High Street. Typical Newark Residence in Civil War Period
and dusty roads carrying baskets of provisions for the men of their homes who were enrolling as soldiers. They often walked the entire distance from the Oranges and other towns in the western part of the county.
The members of the Thirteenth Regiment managed to enjoy the weeks spent on the tented field in Newark. Start- ing in the morning with a splash in the canal, the balance of the day was spent in drilling, receiving friends and concoct- ing schemes for initiating the newest recruit. One of the methods was blanket tossing. Unsuspectingly, when the
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camp was dark and the hour near taps, the one to engage in the ceremony was called from his tent and gently pushed backward into a blanket, held taut by four men. Then the process of tossing him into the air was repeated till all were tired or the captain commanded silence.
There was a famous "skedaddle" from Camp Frelinghuy- sen by another regiment. The men were informed of a hasty departure for Washington. They were not permitted to return home. All wereraw recruits and later were forgiven for stampeding. Away they went, nearly 1,000 men, in the uni- form of blue, out Roseville Avenue, to Orange Street, on a double time, with officers following and shouting to them to halt and return to camp. Within a few hours the men re- ported. A company or more engaged a band of music and came in with flying colors.
Another call was issued in the summer of 1862 for nine months' troops and the Twenty-sixth New Jersey Volun- teers was formed entirely by Essex County residents at Camp Frelinghuysen.
A most inspiring ceremony was held at retreat (sunset) on August 29, when a number of Newark women presented the Thirteenth Regiment with a handsome bunting Flag. The muster was on August 25, and this tinge of patriotism and good will produced a beneficial effect upon the men. Marching orders were published on Saturday, August 30, for the regiment to move on the following day.
The soldiers formed on the parade ground for the last time at 11 o'clock on Sunday morning, August 31, 1862, and then proceeded on their way to Washington. The march was strangely impressive. No sound was heard but the weeping of the women walking on the sidewalk and the shuffling of feet moving in rhythm. Solemn were all the men.
Down Orange Street, to Broad Street, and then to Chestnut Street, the procession continued, unaccompanied by music. Throngs of people followed, augmented by the congregations of churches, which were dismissed as the regi- ment passed along. When the remnant of the "Fighting
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Thirteenth" returned to Newark, on Saturday, June 10, 1865, 27 officers and 300 men were in line, all that remained of the original muster of 38 officers and 937 men, and to whose ranks were added several hundred recruits.
The Twenty-sixth Regiment broke camp on September 26, 1862. Fears were entertained that drafting would be necessary for filling the ranks. Volunteering was practi- cally at a standstill. Large bounties were freely offered as a stimulant and served to recruit the required quota. The regiment returned in June, 1863, having sustained the loss of Captain Samuel Uzal Dodd, of Company H, of Orange, a sterling patriot and a Christian gentleman. He was mortally wounded at Franklin's Crossing over the Rappahannock River on June 5, just as he was planning to return home.
Long lists of killed and wounded appeared in the daily newspapers after the battles, and the people dreaded the arrival of another day, for fear that it would bring news of an engagement and loss of precious lives. War expenditures amounted to the enormous sum of $1,000,000 each day.
The Thirty-third Veteran Regiment, composed almost exclusively of officers and men of returned regiments, sea- soned in campaigning, was recruited at Camp Frelinghuysen and mustered into the United States Army on September 3, 1863. Zouave dress was worn and the regiment made a dash- ing appearance as it marched down Broad Street to the wharf on the Passaic River where a steamboat was boarded and the men proceeded to Washington by the all-water route.
Incipient rioting followed the drafting of citizens into the military service in the summer of 1863. Large bounties, offered men to enlist, failed of its purpose. Foreigners were engaged for various sums, from $500 to $1,000, to act as sub- stitutes for those drafted and unwilling to serve their coun- try, but who were financially able to make the arrange- ment.
George T. Woodbury, Second Lieutenant in the First Regiment of militia, was assigned to the command of Bat-
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tery D, Fourth Artillery, with the rank of captain. The bat- tery was mustered in September, 1863, and arrived in Wash- ington on the 30th of that month. When it returned to Trenton, on June 20, 1865, having served nearly two years, only twenty-five of the original 160 members answered theroll- call. Captain Woodbury was transferred in 1864 to the office of inspector of the United States Ordnance Department, at Springfield, Mass.
Newark sent, it is estimated, over 10,000 men into the United States Army and Navy. The total of 88,305 was furnished by the State.
General George A. Custer, the popular cavalryman, who
Where General "Phil" Kearny Spent His Boyhood Days. Now Site of Normal School
met his death in the famous Indian Battle of the Little Big Horn in June, 1876, was a visitor in Newark on October 31, 1864. Other distinguished military guests were frequently entertained by citizens during the war.
The attention of the nation and of the world was directed toward Essex County in the autumn of 1864. No little ex- citement was created when the information was telegraphed from Chicago that the Democratic National Convention had nominated General Mcclellan as its candidate for President of the United States, in opposition to President
ES NOCHES ZUMCHACALS. DE.S.C. MARSH,
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WHOLESALE& RETAIL. 202 DRUGGIST 292;
ANFNOLLYIST SHOODI
OWYETTLIN. 1915
Northwest corner of Broad and Market Streets, 1865. Showing fire alarm tower
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Lincoln who had again been called to head the ticket of the Republican Party.
The General was living at his home on Mountain Ridge, West Orange, whither he had retired after relinquishing com- mand of the Union Army. The home was named "May- wood," for his daughter, Miss May McClellan, and there the family entertained quietly and generously, when not engaged in travelling, during the next twenty years.
Early in the evening a procession of Essex County De- mocracy was formed at the village green in Orange. Rub- sam's band, playing national airs, led the column up the mountain, over the Northfield Road, to the Mcclellan home.
E. L. Foote, of Orange, addressed the General, in behalf of the assembled Democracy. Though offering hospitality to all in the party, he would not commit himself regarding the nomination.
After its acceptance, General McClellan received the Demo- cratic leaders and other well-known politicians of the party with which he had associated himself.
Election Day on November 8 was attended with ex- citing incidents. Essex County gave its majority for Lin- coln while the State's electoral vote was cast for McClellan.
Through a drizzling rain thousands of citizens, nearly all Republicans, waited at night near the corner of Broad and Market streets, where the telegraph office was stationed, for definite news regarding Lincoln's strength in the country. When his re-election was assured an immense bonfire was kindled in the centre of the intersecting roadways. Digni- fied men and other citizens danced around the blazing pile, shouting in glee over the continuance in office of "Honest Abe," as Lincoln was affectionately called. The Republi- cans held a ratification meeting in Library Hall on Market Street, and the city rejoiced that another burden was not added to those already carried by the retirement of Lincoln. Newark was honored in 1862 when William S. Pennington was elected speaker of the House of Represent- atives at Washington.
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The Thirty-ninth New Jersey Regiment, mustered into service in the early autumn of 1864, and which left for the war in October, gave a good account of its military prowess at the closing battles about Petersburg.
How sleep the brave, who sink to rest, By all their country's wishes blest! When Spring with dewy fingers cold, Returns to deck their hallowed mould, She there shall dress a sweeter sod
- Than Fancy's feet have ever trod.
-COLLINS.
CHAPTER XLIX
MARCUS L. WARD INSTITUTES HOSPITAL
C ESSATION of hostilities in the protracted Civil War was predicted at the beginning of 1865. The re- sources of the Confederate States were exhausted, their credit almost destroyed and the people, though defiant, could not prevail against the power of the Federal Government.
Marcus L. Ward, who saved thousands of families from the stress of poverty, was popular in New Jersey-the man of the hour- and esteemed by thousands of women and children for his kindly acts, for his system of relief extending through every county. The volunteer's monthly allowance was collected and turned over to the family without incur- ring expense to the one in the field or the recipient. If life was sacrificed, serious wound inflicted or wasting disease removed the breadwinner, Mr. Ward, popularly known as the "Soldiers' Friend," secured relief in the form of a pension from the Government. He travelled thousands of miles upon errands of mercy during the war and did not rest from his labors till every case under his care received attention.
Soldiers, invalided to Newark in the late winter of 1862 and prospects of a spring campaign with its resultant list of wounded and sick, made imperative an institution where they could be properly treated. An unusually large number of Jerseymen and others, nearly all wounded in the Battle of Williamsburg, Va., on May 5, arrived in the city on Sun- day morning, May 10, and Mr. Ward as chairman of the Public Aid Committee superintended their removal from the train to hotels and homes opened to them.
The Soldiers' Friend now realized the seriousness of the situation and immediately sought a conference with Gov- ernor Olden at his home in Princeton for permission to engage
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a building suitable for a hospital. Mr. Ward returned on Monday morning with the State of New Jersey as his surety, prepared to create the first hospital within the cor- porate limits of Newark.
B. T. Nichols, who owned a commodious four-story brick warehouse on Centre Street, between the New Jersey Rail- rcad and the Passaic River, was advised of the needs of the
SPAHN'S PHOTOGRAPH
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Northeast Corner of Broad and Market Streets, 1865. Now Site of Firemen's Building
occasion and promptly permitted the use of it for the pro- posed service. The second and third floors were cleared of their contents, scrubbed and fumigated, furniture and sup- plies secured, and on May 13 were in readiness for the patients. Gratuitous assistance was given by Newark physicians and surgeons and by a corps of men and women. Forty-six wounded and diseased soldiers arrived in the even- ing of that day and all were refreshed with clean linen and a comfortable bed. The name applied was the Ward United States General Hospital, in honor of the Soldiers' Friend.
Dr. J. B. Jackson and Dr. I. A. Nichols, local surgeons, appointed the hospital directors, were commissioned As- sistant Surgeons of the Federal Army. The wards were placed in control of the United States authorities on June 17, 1862, and Assistant Surgeon John A. Janeway, a Jersey-
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man, was the executive. The number of patients received by December 1, 1862, was 2,800.
A branch hospital was opened in a building on Market Street, near the Passaic River. Both were merged into one institution in 1865 and a new plant erected in the northern part of the town, near the Corn Mill site of the pioneer period. The equipment consisted of seventeen pavilions, providing 1,020 beds, a large dining hall, bakery, Quartermaster's and Commissary's storehouses, operating room, knapsack build- ing and the morgue.
Cooling breezes in the higher altitude assisted in restoring the soldiers' health. All the beds were occupied by the middle of May and the corps of volunteer nurses faith- fully tended the invalids till the doors were closed about August 31. On the first of that month the patients were reduced to 369 and only a few remained on the closing day.
A total of 8,051 patients were treated at the hospitals from May 13, 1862, to August 31, 1865, and the deaths numbered 204, a remarkable report, when it is remembered that anti- septics in surgery were unknown.
Mr. Ward was instrumental in having the buildings made a State Soldiers' Home. The land consisted of twenty- three acres and was especially adapted to a much-needed retreat for the battle-scarred and homeless veterans of the war.
The dedicatory services were held on September 5, 1866, when Mr. Ward, now Governor of New Jersey, made the following address:
And thus surrounded I dedicate this home to a purpose which honors our instincts and our loyalty. I dedicate it as the residence of the soldiers and sailors of New Jersey, who have been wounded or disabled in the war for the life of the nation. I dedicate it to the roll of gallant soldiers who have borne these Stars and Stripes through many a bloody conflict. I dedicate it in the name and by the authority of the loyal people of New Jersey whose generous purpose has ripened into the accomplished deed. And as we pass this spot thus dedicated to loyalty let us remem-
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ber the priceless gift these veterans preserved for us and our chil- dren.
The home continued an honored association with the Eighth Ward till October 4, 1888, when the home at Kearny was dedicated upon ground purchased by the State.
Eagerly the people awaited the official summons to cele- brate the surrender of General Robert E. Lee to General U. S. Grant, which occurred on the Sabbath Day, April 9. Mayor Theodore Runyon, upon receipt of the news, rec- ommended that all church bells ring from 5 to 6 o'clock in the evening of April 10, and that a service of thanksgiving for the victory and the restoration of peace be arranged.
Church bells and factory whistles were started ringing and blowing at the hour requested, while citizens blew horns, dis- charged firearms, and hundreds stood in the street and cheered and shouted. Pandemonium ruled the hour. All restraint was abandoned. A Broad Street merchant placed a large bar of steel in front of his store which he pounded with a hammer till exhaustion overcame him when he was relieved by other celebrators.
The brass field piece, faithfully serving on Independence Day from the period when the Republic was young, and stationed on Broad Street, at the corner of Mechanic Street, was fired at minute intervals while the national emblem fluttered from homes, churches, factories and business houses. Overcome with excitement, the gunners forgot to remove the ramming rod from the barrel. The next dis- charge sent the superfluous ammunition whizzing along Broad Street, severely injuring those of the firing party. Archibald Peacock, in charge of the minute gun firing on the village green in Orange, was mortally wounded in a pre- mature explosion of "The Old Volunteer," the cannon used in firing salutes in that town.
A jubilee mass meeting was held in Library Hall on Mar- ket Street in the evening, and on April 11 church services were largely attended, and the people thanked God for the
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victory. The widows and orphans were not forgotten. A collection of $850 was taken in the First Reformed Church. To this was added $143 received at the mass meeting. Other churches contributed to the fund, which was applied to needy cases. Four days did the people rejoice. The "boys" would soon be home from the front and reunions were planned in neighborhoods while the city welcome was arranged on a larger scale.
Easter Sunday was approaching. The season of the New Birth seemed most appropriate for the beginning of the Nation's new era. This dispatch came over the tele- graph wire on Saturday morning, April 15, changing in an instant the spirit of joyousness throughout the North:
Washington, April 15, 1865.
Abraham Lincoln died this morning at twenty minutes after seven o'clock.
Flags displayed triumphantly during the past days were now a delusion. True, the Nation was saved, but he who had borne so faithfully and patiently the great burden of the war was in the hour of national joy struck down by an assassin. Messages received from Washington and the newspapers, regular editions and extras, told of the shooting of Lincoln at the Ford Theatre on the evening of Good Friday. John Wilkes Booth, the assassin, escaped, but was later apprehended and executed.
Lincoln, the masterful, the emancipator and humanitarian, was now in death's robes. Men and women were not ashamed of their tears. The loss of the Nation was their sorrow. Mechanically they pursued their affairs in a dazed, indifferent manner. Reverently the emblem of the country -the whole country-was withdrawn from its position of gladness to the one indicative of mourning, at the middle of the staff.
Mayor Runyon ordered all city offices closed. The hos- pitals on Centre and Market streets were draped in mourning. The entire front of the Post Office building was swathed
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in black and white, and in the centre, printed in large letters, were these words: "The Nation Mourns." The Neptune and other fire houses were also draped and pictures of the martyred President, bordered with black, were placed on the outside of dwellings.
Easter Sunday dawned sorrowfully. Special evening services at the First Baptist Church were attended by 2,000 persons and many were unable to gain admittance. The Rev. Dr. Elijah R. Craven, pastor of the Third Presbyterian Church, delivered the eulogy.
Church bells, pealing victoriously nine days before, were on April 19, the ninetieth anniversary of Lexington and Concord, of the "firing of the shot heard round the world," tolling a requiem at the noon hour for the one who had recently and magnanimously uttered the hopeful words: "With malice toward none and with charity for all." This was the day on which funeral services were held in Wash- ington and business was suspended in every Northern State.
A procession was formed at the corner of Broad and Market streets at 2 o'clock. Church bells were again tolled "while the mourners went about the streets" and the bands played dirges. Two hours and a half later the column appeared at Military Park, where thousands of persons congregated.
Marcus L. Ward presided at the open-air service. Dod- worth's brass band furnished instrumental music and vocal selections were rendered by the German Singing Societies. The oration was delivered by Hon. Frederick T. Freling- huysen, and Rev. E. M. Levy offered prayer. Five days later, on the morning of April 24, the funeral train bearing the remains of Lincoln entered New Jersey and appeared at the Market street depot at 9 o'clock. A battery fired minute guns, the bells in the church steeples were tolled and Newark assembled en masse. A stop of a few minutes was made while the men removed their hats and stood in respect- ful silence. No sound was heard in that great throng of thousands of human beings but the faint sobbing of those
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Soldiers and Sailors Plot (War of Rebellion) in Fairmount Cemetery
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