USA > New Jersey > New Jersey and the rebellion : a history of the service of the troops and people of New Jersey in aid of the Union cause, Pt. 2 > Part 36
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NEW JERSEY AND THE REBELLION.
that the pay of the non-commissioned officers, musicians and pri- vates so mustered in from this State, should be increased at the rate of four dollars a month in addition to the pay allowed by law- such increase, however, not to apply to such portion of the State Militia as were provided for in payment to their families.1
1 " The Supreme Court, in giving interpretation to this law, was of the opinion that the benefits of the aet were confined to those organizations of volunteers or militia that were raised in the State by State authority, including all troops aeeepted by the State, whether previously resident here or not, and that the first seetion of the aet extended only to families or widowed mothers having their permanent residence in this State at the time of the enlistment of the volunteer.
"The original State pay rolls were prepared in accordance with the opinion given by the Supreme Court of the State, and contained the names of those in State organi- zations who had families or widowed mothers entitled to the benefits of the act. These rolls were forwarded to the Clerk's office of the county in which the respective fami- lies or widowed mothers resided, and payment made upon the same. Alterations were made from time to time, as the change of the condition of the men, or the change of residence of the families demanded, the names of deserters, discharged and deceased soldiers were dropped, and additions made, as the exigeneies of the service required. Alteration or correction of the rolls was made invariably under written instructions from this office, where every attention was paid to meet the convenience of the recipi- ents of the bounty and to promote the expeditious payment of the money. Owing to the expeditious manner in which these corrections were sometimes made, and the names of deceased soldiers stricken from the rolls, the families of those who died in the service suffered materially, for this State pay was discontinued at the time when all pay from the United States had eeased, and before the family could derive any benefit from the back pay, bounty or pension that might be due for the services of the deceased. The attention of the Legislature was called to this fact, and a supplement to the original aet was passed by that body and approved April 14, 1864, which pro- vided that the pay of six dollars per month be continued to the families and widowed mothers of those who die while in the military service of this State or of the United States, for the space of six months after the death of such persons ; provided, that such persons are not and shall not at the time of their death be under punishment for any military offenee, under sentence of a court martial involving loss of pay ; and that if a pension shall have been or shall be paid by the United States to such family or widowed mother before the expiration of six months from the date of the death of such persons, then and in that case the payment authorized by this aet to be made, shall cease from and after the date of the first payment of such pension, and that the aet should take effeet immediately.
"Immediate action was taken under this supplemental law-the respective pay- masters being held responsible that the payment should eease, upon the receipt of pension from the United States, before the six months expired.
"The provisions of the original act were materially extended by a further supple- ment approved March 31, 1865. This provided 'that the sum of six dollars per month shall be allowed and paid to the mothers of such persons of the militia of this State without families, as have been or shall be mustercd into the service of the United States, where such mothers are dependent on such person so mustered in for support, whether the husband of such mother be living or not; provided the hus- band of such mother has abandoned her, and left her without support, or is insane, or from any other cause neglects, refuses, or is unable to support her.' The second seetion provided for the payment of six dollars per month to the families of men mustered into the service of the United States, notwithstanding the date of marriage
777
LEGISLATION OF THE WAR PERIOD.
The legislation of the session of 1862 was in harmony with that of the preceding year, a number of acts being passed looking to the vigorous performance by the State of all the duties which it might be called to execute. Among other joint resolutions was one relative to the defences of New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware, earnestly requesting the general Government to provide suitable and sufficient defences for the Delaware river and bay and the harbors thereof by the construction of gunboats and other improved means of defence, and proposing to unite with the States above named in advancing the means for the completion of said work, should the Government immediately consent to enter upon it. Nothing, however, ever came of this proposition, and it was probably well that it was not accepted, since any expenditure for defences of the character proposed would have been practically worthless, there being no time during the war, after the first six months, when the Delaware river or bay, or the harbors thereof, were in the least exposed to the ravages of the enemy.
On the 20th of January, 1863, Joel Parker, who had been elected Governor by a large majority in the election of the previous November, was inducted into the Executive office, and the State, politically, took a new departure. Governor Parker was a Demo- crat, educated to regard the creed of his party as exclusively embodying the only safe principles of government; and he had been elected upon a platform of avowed hostility to many of the measures adopted in the prosecution of the war. There were some who feared that he would be unduly controlled by the more radical and obnoxious leaders of his party, and that his administration would be characterized by partizan rancor rather than by broad principles of public duty. But Governor Parker, while intensely wedded to the political tenets which his judgment had accepted, was not a demagogue. He loved applause; he would have pre- ferred at all times to enjoy the approbation of every man in his
shall be subsequent to the enlistment. The third section extended the payment of six dollars per month to the families or dependent mothers of naval recruits, eredited to the State. The fourth section extended the provisions of the original act to negroes, their families or dependent mothers." -- Adjutant General's Report for 1865.
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778
NEW JERSEY AND THE REBELLION.
party ; possibly he would rather have possessed their mere partizan approval than the enlightened, impartial commendation of the same number of political opponents; but he was a man of pure integrity, of mainly conscientious purpose, and withal a patriot ; and he was not long in disappointing the expectations of the little cabal who had hoped that they might induce him to array the State against the war, and obstruct the general Government in its plans of defence. It is true, he did not conceal his opposition to many features in the war policy of the Government. In his inau- gural, he spoke positively and emphatically as to emancipation, arbitrary arrests and other then prominent topics; but he at the same time denounced the rebellion as unjustifiable and pledged himself to the performance of every work in which he might be called to aid in maintenance of the Union. That pledge, with now and then a partizan bias, he kept to the end ; and during his admin- istration, the general spirit of legislation was in accord with that of previous years .? At the session of 1863, an act was passed
· 2 Governor Parker was decidedly more of a partizan than his predecessor; he min- gled to a much greater extent in political affairs, frequently appearing at public meet- ings in support of peculiarly party measures ; but he did not neglect the severe routine duties of his office, nor the interests of the State. During his official term, he wrote with his own hand seven thousand letters, many of considerable length, and covering a great variety of subjects. He on several occasions visited the army and reviewed those New Jersey regiments within reach, and he claims never to have made any pro- motion for political reasons. A number of soldiers condemned to be shot for various offenees were saved by his intercession, and he exhibited, in other ways, a proper con- cern for their welfare, establishing a State Ageney at Washington, and appointing Mr. Charles D. Desliler and others as agents, to visit our troops in the field, and in the hospitals of the Southwest and other points. During part of the war, Dr. R. R. Corson acted as State Agent in Philadelphia, rendering important service. [The ser- vices of Mr. Deshiler among the troops west of the Alleghany Mountains, it may be here remarked, were attended by excellent results, and were performed in a manner entirely satisfactory to the State. They covered a period of five months, during which he secured for New Jersey soldiers many advantages which proved of permanent value]. When General Grant crossed the Rapidan, in response to a call of the Sur- geon-General for volunteer Surgeons and nurses, Governor Parker dispatched a delega- tion of nine physicians, together with nurses, hospital and sanitary stores-the latter being the first articles of the kind to reach Fredericksburg after its occupation by our troops ; subsequently, in response to a second call, the Governor sent another delega. tion of thirteen volunteer Surgeons to White House, Virginia, where their services were of great value.
During the riots in New York, in 1863, General Wool and Mayor Opdyke applied to Governor Parker for troops to aid in suppressing the disturbance. He replied that all the available militia of the State had been dispatched to Pennsylvania; but even had it been otherwise, he would probably have declined to send the men asked for, holding
779
LEGISLATION OF THE WAR PERIOD.
authorizing the Governor and Treasurer to borrow the additional sum of one million dollars for war purposes, together with a num- ber of others empowering various towns and counties to raise money for the purpose of promoting volunteering. In 1864, in addition to a law authorizing a further loan of one million dollars, joint resolutions were adopted authorizing the Governor to expend three thousand dollars in the removal of the bodies of New Jersey soldiers who died on the battle-field near Gettysburg, to the National Cemetery at that place, and to assist in the erection of a monu- ment, and also authorizing the appointment of Marcus L. Ward, Daniel Haines, William A. Newell, Edwin A. Stevens, Charles S. Olden and Theodore S. Paul, as commissioners to make inquiries and report what legislative provision ought to be made in behalf of the wounded and disabled soldiers of the State, and whether a State retreat or home should be built for such purpose. This act was passed mainly through the efforts of the gentleman first named as commissioner. A large number of bounty laws were also enacted at this session ; legislation of this character, indeed, occu- pying the greater part of the sitting. In 1865, among the first resolutions adopted, was one authorizing an expenditure in excess of the amount previously specified in aid of the erection of a sol- dier's monument at Gettysburg. A law was also passed creating "The Soldiers' Childrens' Home," a corporation for the purpose of
that the introduction of other than domestic troops would only have tended to aggra- vate the disorder. When, subsequently to the battle of Monocacy, in 1864, the eities of Washington and Baltimore were endangered, Governor Parker promptly called for troops to meet the emergency, and, Captain R. H. Lec, of Camden, responding with a company of militia, speedily dispatched him for duty at the Relay House, Maryland.
Governor Parker opposed, during his entire administration, what were known as "arbitrary arrests," and at one time, upon the petition of certain citizens, appointed Abraham Browning and Mereer Beesley, well known lawyers, to test in the United States Courts the constitutionality of the Congressional Aet regulating (and suspending) the habeas corpus. This matter, however, was never pressed to an issue, but the action of Governor Parker exhibited his opposition to summary procedures of the character named, and at the time occasioned a great deal of comment. Governor Olden, how- ever, had before him protested, in a correspondence with the State Department, against the system of "arbitrary arrests," insisting that, at all events, every man who might be so arrested should be afforded a speedy opportunity, upon a frank and full statement of the charges against him, to vindicate himself, and showing that the oppo- site course was, in New Jersey at least, productive of evil rather than of good-inflam- ing the temper of the anti-war party and augmenting the difficulties of the political situation in the State.
780
NEW JERSEY AND THE REBELLION.
providing a home, supporting and educating the destitute children of any soldier, whether living or dead, who may have been engaged in the war for the Union. At the same time, the com- missioners appointed for the purpose having reported a plan, an act was passed authorizing the erection and establishment, at an expense not exceeding fifty thousand dollars, of a Home for Dis- abled Soldiers of this State. At the session of 1866, when the control of legislation passed into the hands of the Republican party, an appropriation of ten thousand dollars was authorized for the purchase of a site for the Soldiers' Childrens' Home, and an additional appropriation of twenty thousand dollars for the erection of suitable buildings thereon. It was also enacted that in order to . support the said Home, the sum of thirty-seven dollars and a-half be paid, quarterly, out of the State Treasury, for each child main- tained in the institution. At the same session, the act for the establishment of a Home for Disabled Soldiers was so far modified as to permit the necessary grounds and buildings to be leased instead of erected; and in pursuance of this authorization, premises were at once rented in the city of Newark, and the advantages proposed by the act secured to all who chose to claim them. The buildings for the Childrens' Home were erected in the city of Trenton, and already vast benefit has been conferred by the insti- tution upon the class for whom it was specifically designed.
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It is plain from this brief glance at the legislation of the war period that there is little in it of which the State need be ashamed. It may, in some respects, have been hesitating and reluctant ; measures may sometimes have been enacted only in obedience to the pressure of popular opinion, or under the stimulus of urgent importunity from public-spirited citizens; but whatever may have been the motives or the circumstances under which certain specific laws were passed, we have simply to deal with them as results, as they appear upon the record, and upon each and all in harmony with the loyal spirit of the time, can only bestow cordial and unqualified approbation.
CHAPTER XLIII.
POPULAR SYMPATHY WITH THE CAUSE.
Ir was not alone in the halls of legislation that cordial response was given to every appeal in behalf of the Cause and its defenders. The masses of the people, everywhere, exhibited unfailing sympa- thy with the men in the field. No war in history was ever embel- lished by such matchless exhibitions of benevolence, such displays of the Christian grace of charity, as this. Never before were the people so immediately related to an army in the field, so inti- mately identified with its fortunes, or so profoundly solicitous for its comfort, as in this sublime struggle between centralized aris- tocracy and the spirit of civil and religious liberty. As all ranks and orders of men were found in the military service, so all sorts and orders of households-the humblest and poorest as well as the proudest and most palatial-became contributors alike to the stream of sympathy which poured unceasingly into hospital and field. The cottage beside far away Northern lakes, the hut in the pine forests of distant Maine, the hovel on the frontiers of West- ern civilization. all throbbed and glowed with prayer and sympathy for the Nation's defenders, and from all alike hands of blessing- often, indeed, but scantily filled, but hands of blessing all the same-were stretched out to those who stood between the Govern- ment and its foes. The sentiment of patriotism in the hearts of the masses, at every call for help, became a sentient force, flowering into kindly ministrations. This grand army of the Republic belonged to the people ; it was their representative; the embodi- ment of their loyal purpose; the type of their manhood; the pledge of their fidelity. There was a day, not far removed, when they whose fect now kept time to the music of its bugles, had gone out from the sphere of home duties, with the kisses of loved
782
NEW JERSEY AND THE REBELLION.
ones upon their foreheads, to take up the solemn work of the field; every doorstep in the land had been pressed by some such foot; every mother, sister, wife, some such kiss had given as a benediction to some departing volunteer. Was it any wonder that thoughts of the absent ones, thus going with their lives in their hands to do battle for the Nation, hovered perpetually about the homes they had left behind ; any wonder that when the sound of battle came upon the drowsy air, each waiting heart grew still and anxious ; any wonder that when, as the smoke rolled away and the field was revealed, ghastly with dead and dying, the whole people hastened to relieve the suffering and touch with cool finger the parched, pale lips of the smitten ones ? Could these, maimed for us, have been forgotten, and the Nation have stood guiltless before the world? Stopping our ears to their piteous cries, could we have prayed for God's blessing on the cause in whose defence they had perilled all ? Shutting our eyes to the privations, perils and needs of the field-to the coarse barbarisms of rebel prison hells-to the sicknesses and deaths of the camp, could we have looked with joy upon the breaking dawn of triumph or joined with exultant voices in pæans of thanksgiving ?
It has been well said that one of the chief peculiarities of our recent war was that all its methods were modified and controlled by the great popular ideas which lie at the basis of American civiliza- tion. It was a popular war in the widest sense. Not merely was the military policy of the time controlled by public opinion, but everything which was accomplished, whether good or bad, was due entirely to the impulse of popular ideas; and thus the contest pre- sents a perfect picture of the civilization of the people engaged in its prosecution. And nowhere can we find a more complete exbi- bition of this civilization than in those organizations of popular enthusiasm, sympathy and benevolence wholly outside of the Government, but all undertaken to strengthen its hands, without whose potent influence the struggle must have been vastly pro- longed, only to result at last, perhaps, in disaster. In no State was this organized popular sympathy more promptly tendered, or more effectively given, than in our own. With the very beginning of
783
POPULAR SYMPATHY WITH THE CAUSE.
the contest, popular attention was directed to the work of providing means for ministering to the aid and comfort of the volunteers who flocked to the field. Before a single regiment had left the State, nimble fingers were engaged in fashioning articles of convenience for those preparing to march. Nor was this impulse any less gen- eral than it was spontaneous. In every town and hamlet of the State, men who were unable to bear arms, and women, genuine sisters of mercy, were inspired with a zeal and enthusiasm in be- half of those who went forth in their stead, which, in its depth and earnestness, and at last, as experience was gained, in its prac- tical efficiency, was wholly without parallel. There were many reasons, aside from zeal for the cause in which they were engaged, both in the character of the volunteers raised immediately after the fall of Sumter, and the circumstances by which they had been suddenly transformed into soldiers, which made them from the beginning peculiarly the objects of tender popular care and solici- tude. The nuclei of all the first regiments raised were the militia or volunteer companies existing in the various towns and cities. For the most part the men were without any experience whatever in campaigning, and their knowledge of a soldier's duties was con- fined to the requirements of a holiday parade. They were, moreover, on many accounts those likely to suffer most seriously from the fatigues and privations of a soldier's life. But at this time the Government had failed entirely to organize effective measures for promoting the health and comfort of the troops; and the mo- ment that the volunteers began to gather into camps or barracks, the result was seen in the prevalence of diseases that might easily have been prevented, and in the absence of any provisions what- ever for the relief of the sick or ailing. It was just here that the popular sympathy found a reason, aside from any considerations of interest in the cause, for exertion and contributions in aid of those in the service. The people must supply what the Government had omitted to provide ; must organize, as best they could, systems of relief; must pour in, by whatever channels might offer, their offer- ings of sympathy and affection for those who had abandoned the comforts of home to stand on the outposts of danger.
784
NEW JERSEY AND THE REBELLION.
The earliest organized movement in New Jersey for army relief was made by the women of Newark, who on the 24th of April, 1861, formed an association (of which the wife of ex-Governor Pennington was chosen President) for the purpose of preparing necessary comforts for the volunteers from that city. Four days before this, a number of ladies of Jersey City had tendered their services as nurses, but, so far as can be ascertained, no organized effort was made in that city until a later date. During the follow - ing fortnight, similar aid societies were formed in all the larger cities and town, and before the close of the year nearly every town in the State had its relief association. In many places, these organizations originated in the churches ; in others, they were the result of a spontaneous popular sympathy in which religious senti- ment was in no sense the controlling impulse. In every instance, women of all classes of society were alike interested in, and con- tributors to, these organizations. The American, the German, the Irish, all brought their gifts and laid them upon the altar. Some women, more conspicuous than others for energy and executive capacities, naturally achieved prominence in the eyes of the com- munity ; but often the gifts of the humbler had in them more of the spirit of lofty self-sacrifice than the offerings and deeds of more favored sisters.1 During the war, a number of Jersey women served faithfully in the hospitals in and about Washington, and one, as an accredited agent of the Sanitary Commission, accompanied the Army of the Potomac in all its campaigns, ministering with unre- mitting care to the wants of the sick and wounded. Another, Miss Cornelia Hancock, of Salem County, was even more distin -. guished for her labors in this direction. Miss Hancock first visited the field as a nurse in July, 1863, when she was the first woman who reached, and ministered to, the wounded of the Second Army Corps on the bloody field of Gettysburg. . Her labors here were of the most exhausting and valuable character, and were highly appreciated by the men. She remained in the field hospital until
1 Among the women of the State none exhibited a profounder interest in the welfare of our soldiers than the wife of Governor Olden.
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POPULAR SYMPATHY WITH THE CAUSE.
the establishment of the general hospital at Camp Letterman, where she assisted in the care of the wounded for several weeks longer-the soldiers of the Third Division voting her a silver medal as an expression of their appreciation of her services. In October following, proceeding to Washington, Miss Hancock offered her services in the Contraband hospital, and was there employed until February, 1864, when, in obedience to a summons from the Sur- geon in charge at Brandy Station, she went to that place-the medal given her at Gettysburg securing her a pass from the Secre- tary of War and proving everywhere a passport to the favor of subordinate officials. At Brandy Station the men built her a log house, and she ministered in various ways to the comfort of the sick and wounded. She remained here until April, when she returned to Philadelphia.
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