USA > New Jersey > The New Jersey coast in three centuries; history of the New Jersey coast with genealogical and historic-biographical appendix, Vol. I > Part 22
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At Gettysburg, out of two hundred and seventy-five officers and men of the regiment who went into action, eighteen men were killed, one hun- dred and thirty were wounded, and six were reported missing.
The Fourteenth Regiment had two companies from Union County -Company C, Captain Chauncey Harris, and Company E, Captain James L. Bodwell. This command is referred to at length elsewhere in this chapter.
Company B, Captain John N. Lewis, the only Union County com- pany in the Thirtieth Regiment, went into service September 17, 1862, for a term of nine months. It was assigned to duty among the defensive forces of the National capital, and participated in but one engagement, the desperate battle of Chancellorsville.
The Twenty-eighth Regiment was organized in the summer of 1862 and was mustered into service September 22, for a period of nine months.
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Seven of its ten companies and a large part of another company were re- cruited in Middlesex County, and were as follows :
Company A, which also contained a few men from Monmouth County, had for its first Captain, B. F. Lloyd, who died in hospital, and was succeeded in turn by J. R. Appleby and Wesley Stoney.
Company B was commanded by Captain H. S. Disbrow, a gallant officer, who was for a time commander of the regiment. First Lieutenant ยท J. H. Gulick had seen service with the celebrated Ellsworth Zouaves, and was a most accomplished drill master.
Company C was commanded by Captain Joseph C. Letson, a splendid officer, who, while gallantly leading his men as acting Major, in the bat- tle of Fredericksburg, received a rifle ball through his arm, but refused to go to the rear, and retained his command until the action was over. He was again severely wounded in the battle at Chancellorsville.
Company D was commanded by Captain William H. Dunham. The First Lieutenant, Augustus Hatfield, was for a time acting Regimental Quartermaster.
Company F was commanded by Captain Isaac Inslee, Jr., a most capa- ble officer. Benjamin A. Robbins, the First Lieutenant, was soon com- missioned as Regimental Adjutant.
Captain Joseph L. Crowell, commanding Company I, was wounded at Fredericksburg. Sergeant John H. Tyrrell, for his bravery in the battle of Fredericksburg, where he lost a foot, was commissioned as Lieutenant, but was unable to rejoin his company.
Company K, commanded by Captain George Storer, had among its Sergeants, J. T. Bolton, who was promoted to a lieutenancy for conspic- uous bravery in the battle of Fredericksburg.
Throughout its service, the regiment formed a part of the Army of the Potomac. The first Colonel was Moses N. Wisewell, who was wounded in the battle of Fredericksburg and incapacitated for further service. He was succeeded by E. A. L. Roberts, and he by John A. Wild- rick, who had been a captain in the Second Regiment. Major S. K. Wil- son served throughout the term of service of the regiment, which he con- manded at times as senior field officer present. William D. Newell was Surgeon, and Benjamin N. Baker was Assistant Surgeon. The Chap- lain was the Rev. C. J. Page, a Baptist minister of Piscataway. The regi- mental loss in the assault on the heights of Fredericksburg was one hun- dred and sixty-one killed and wounded, and twenty-nine missing, and at Chancellorsville it was thirty killed, wounded and missing.
Monmouth county contributed to the Fifth Regiment one company, Company K, Captain Vincent M. Mount, who resigned and was succeeded
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by Edward A. Acton, who was killed in the second battle of Bull Run, August 29, 1862. The regiment went to the front August 29, 1861, and was attached to the Second New Jersey Brigade, in Hooker's Division. It served with the Army of the Potomac throughout the war, and fought in many of the most desperate battles, including those of the bloody Seven Days, the second Bull Run, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg. the Wilderness, and the closing operations about Petersburg and on the Boydton Plank Road.
The Fourteenth Regiment was one of five New Jersey regiments which were formed in response to President Lincoln's call for three hun- dred thousand men, made July 7, 1862. It was organized at Camp Vren- denburgh, near the old Monmouth battle ground at the outskirts of Free- hold, and it was mustered into service August 26, 1862. In its first ac- tion, that on the Rapidan River, September 15, 1863, it lost sixteen killed and fifty-eight wounded, and its gallant behavior was made the subject of a commendatory order issued by General Morris, the Brigade Com- mander. It bore a gallant part in the subsequent operations, and was par- ticularly conspicuous in the battle of the Monocacy, under General Lew Wallace, which in all probability saved the Federal capital by so retarding the march of the columns of the enemy as to enable Union troops to reach it before them. The regiment served under General Sheridan in the aut- umn campaign of 1864, fought in the battles at Cedar Creek and Hatcher's Run, took part in the assault upon Fort Steadman, and its Colonel, Will- iam S. Truex, received the surrender of Lieutenant General Ewell, with his staff and troops. It went into service with nine hundred and fifty men and received large numbers of recruits, but so disastrous were battle and disease that the remnant of the regiment honorably discharged at the end of the war was but two hundred and thirty in number. Through its long service by the side of Sheridan's fleet riders it was known as the "Flatfooted Cavalry."
This regiment contained three full companies from Monmouth county, as follows : 1
Company A was commanded by Captain Austin H. Patterson, who resigned November 16, 1863, to accept a commission as Major of the Thirty-fifth Regiment. He was succeeded by Henry J. Conine, who was killed in the battle of the Monocacy. The third Captain was Charles M. Bartruff, who came up from the ranks, and who at the end of the war bore the brevet rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
Company D went out under the command of Captain James W. Con- over. who died at Frederick City, Maryland, August 4, 1864, from wounds received in the battle of the Monocacy on the preceding 9th of July. He
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was succeeded by Henry D. Bookstaver. William H. Craig was succes- sively Second Lieutenant and First Lieutenant. While holding the latter rank he was wounded in the battle of Monocacy, and for his gallantry on that occasion was commissioned Captain, but was not mustered in as such, and was discharged on account of his wounds, November 8th following.
Company G was commanded by Captain John V. Alstrom, who was promoted to be Major of the Third Cavalry, May 6, 1864, and was suc- ceeded by William W. Conover.
Besides these, there were many Monmouth County men in various other companies in the regiment.
The Fourteenth Regiment had for its Major one of the most brilliant volunteer officers of his day, in the person of Peter Vrendenburgh, Jr., who gloriously fell in battle at a moment when fame had marked him for more signal honors.
He was born in Freehold, Monmouth County, New Jersey, February 12, 1837, eldest son of Judge Peter Vrendenburgh, an accomplished law- yer and one of the most distinguished jurists of the State, who went to his grave heartbroken for loss of his gifted son. The junior Vrendenburgh inherited from his sire a disposition for law, and after diligent reading under the preceptorship of Hon. B. F. Randolph, he was admitted to the bar soon after attaining his majority, and three years later was licensed as a counsellor. He began practice in 1859, at Eatontown, and soon acquired a lucrative business.
In the summer of 1862 he aided in the recruiting of the Fourteenth Regiment, in which he was commissioned Major. At Frederick City, Maryland, he was assigned to duty as Provost Marshal, and in that re- sponsible position he acquitted himself with such excellent judgment and great tact that soldiery, press and people united in commendation of him. September 5, 1863, he was placed on duty as inspector general of the Third Division, Third Corps, and developed such aptitude for duty in that line that three months later he was advanced to the inspector generalship of the Third Corps, a veritable army of twenty-seven thousand men. In the re- organization of the army in March, 1864, the Third Corps was discon- tinued, and Major Vrendenburgh was assigned to duty as inspector gen- eral on the staff of General Ricketts, commanding the Third Division, Sixth Corps.
In the routine duties of inspection, upon which greatly depended the efficient condition of the troops as to arms, clothing, camp and garrison equipage and transportation, Major Vrendenburgh devoted conscientious care. At the same time, on the march and battlefield he was a most effi- cient aide to his General, displaying at all times every quality which marks
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the gallant and enterprising officer. In the severe engagement at Cold Harbor he was asked by General Ricketts to lead the division in its as- sault upon the works of the enemy, and without hesitation he spurred his horse to the charge and surmounted the works in advance of the onrushing troops.
In the famous battle of the Monocacy, July 9, 1864, his conduct was such as to gain the warmest approval of the commanding officer, General Lew Wallace, who in his report mentioned him as an officer of inestimable value; and Major Yard, who visited the battlefield to see to the burial of the dead and the caring for the wounded of the Fourteenth Regiment, wrote that it was said of him, by those who witnessed the engagement, that he exhibited greater courage than any other on the field.
July 17th following, General Ricketts was assigned to the command of the Sixth Corps, and Major Vrendenburgh became inspector general of that command. Some days later, however, the Major asked to be returned to his regiment, in the conviction that its great loss of officers rendered necessary his presence with it, but the request was denied by General Rick- etts, who endorsed upon his application a fervent tribute, in which he said, "while appreciating the high military feeling which prompts this ap- plication, it can not at present be granted without serious inconvenience ; Major Vrendenburgh's admirable fitness for a staff officer, and his dis- tinguished gallantry, to which I am much indebted, induces this refusal."
About a month later Major Vrendenburgh renewed his request, which was granted, and August 25th he assumed command of his regi- ment as the ranking field officer present. On September 19th following, after a twenty-mile night march, he led his command to the battle at Opequan. For some hours the men lay under a heavy fire from the ert- emy's batteries six hundred yards distant, replying with their muskets in a desultory way, the troops opposed to them being well concealed in their rifle pits. About noon came an order to assault the works. On the mo- ment Major Vrendenburgh was in the saddle. With his foot in the stirrup he addressed his men in fervid encouragement, then his voice rang out in the order to charge, and the regiment rushed forward. A few yards of ground had been covered, when a shell tore open his throat, and the spleil- did soldier fell from his horse a corpse.
The untimely death of Major Vrendenburgh was sincerely mourned, not only by the men of his own regiment, but by the entire corps. General Wright, desiring to pay all due honor to his memory, detailed the regi- mental chaplain, the Rev. F. B. Rose, to convey the remains of the fallen hero to the family home at Freehold. This was impracticable at the mo- ment and temporary interment was made near the battlefield, the bodies
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of Lieutenant Green, also of the Fourteenth Regiment, and of Major Dil- lingham, of the Tenth Vermont Regiment, being laid in the same grave. A few days later the body of Major Vrendenburgh was exhumed and conveyed to Freehold, where funeral services were held in the Reformed Church, September 30th. On this solemn and deeply affecting occasion, the great funeral cortege included a large number of soldiers who marched without arms or music. The last resting place of Major Vrendenburgh, ardent patriot, gallant soldier and irreproachable citizen, is marked by an enduring granite monument in the Freehold cemetery.
Camp Vrendenburgh, near Freehold, was the rendezvous for the re- cruits assembled for the Twenty-ninth Regiment, nine-months men, which was composed of Monmouth county men, with the exception of Com- pany H, which was practically recruited in Ocean county.
The original field 'and staff officers were: Colonel, Edwin F. Apple- gate ; Lieutenant Colonel, William R. Taylor; Major, Joseph T. K. Davi- son ; Adjutant, Edgar Whitaker; Quartermaster, Peter J. Hendrickson; Surgeon, Henry G. Cooke; Assistant Surgeon, Judson C. Shackleton ; Chaplain, Lester C. Rogers.
The Monmouth county companies were commanded by the following named captains : A, George H. Green; B, Thomas Robinson; C, Thomas A. Slack; D, Joseph T. Field, who subsequently became Major; E, Joseph T. Lake; F, Robert R. Mount; G, John H. Hyer ; I, Jeremiah V. Spader ; K, Joseph G. Stanton.
The regiment left its camp of instruction September 28, 1862, and proceeded to Washington, where it was placed on duty as a part of the provisional force organized for the defence of the capital. November 30th it was attached to the Army of the Potomac, and it participated in the battle of Fredericksburg, but sustained only trifling loss, although greatly exposed and subjected to a severe fire. It lost a number of men in the subsequent battle of Chancellorsville. It served during the operations which preceded the battle of Gettysburg, and was mustered out of serv- ice at Freehold June 30, 1863.
Monmouth county was numerously represented in various other or- ganizations, and particularly in Company I of the Eleventh Regiment. There were a considerable number of men from that county in the Thirty- fourth and Thirty-fifth Regiments, and Company A of the Thirty-eighth Regiment was almost altogether made up from it. The officers of Com- pany A were Captain Thomas J. Swannel and Lieutenants Joseph E. Jones and John Grant.
In the cavalry service, from Monmouth county, was a large number of
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men in companies F, H and I, of the Second Regiment, and companies B and K of the Third Regiment.
The Second Cavalry Regiment took the field in October, 1863, and was assigned to General Stoneman's cavalry division of the Army of the Potomac. In November it was transferred to the Army of the Southwest, and took part in nearly forty battles and skirmishes on and near the lower Mississippi River.
The Third Cavalry Regiment went into service in April, 1864, march- ng overland to Annapolis, Maryland. It was attached to the cavalry corps of the Army of the Potomac, and bore a part in several engagements in the Wilderness and in the operations about Petersburg. In July it was transferred to General Sheridan's army operating in the Shenandoah Val- ley. During its term of service it participated in thirty-five battles and skirmishes, including several of the most notable cavalry engagements of the war.
In the artillery arm, Monmouth County men were numerous in Hex- amer's Battery A, Beam's Battery B and Woodbury's Battery D, and par- ticularly in the last named.
Battery D went to the front September 20, 1864, and received its guns and equipments at Washington. In the next April it was attached to the Tenth Army Corps, with which it took part in the operations before Petersburg. In November, 1864, it was sent to New York City, in antici- pation of the impending riots growing out of the draft and presidential election. When the crisis was passed it returned to the front and again went into position in front of Petersburg, and remained with the Army of the Potomac until the close of the war.
The memory of one of the most gallant sons of Monmouth County is commemorated in the name of Arrowsmith Post, No. 61, Grand Army of the Republic, at Red Bank, and in a massive monument in the cemetery of that city, which, as its inscription records, was "Erected by his numer- ous friends (including survivors of his old regiment) in token of his dis- tinguished personal worth, patriotic devotion and distinguished bravery." The story of his life is well worth the telling, as showing of what stuff was made the patriot soldier of that day.
George Arrowsmith was a native of New Jersey, born near Harmony meeting house, in Middletown township, Monmouth County, April 18, 1839. His ancestors were English people who settled on Staten Island about 1683. His father, Thomas Arrowsmith, a farmer by occupation, was a man whose educational advantages were extremely limited, but whose native endowments were generous. He was a man of wide general information, and an effective public speaker. He served in the war of
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1812 and was subsequently a major of militia. He occupied various pub- lic positions in the township and county, was a member of the legislative council in 1835-6, State Treasurer in 1843-5, and a lay judge of the court of errors and appeals of New Jersey, 1852-8. In all these various positions he discharged his duties creditably, and his integrity was never assailed. His last years were embittered by his deep sorrow for the loss of his son, and his own death occurred December 27, 1866, at the age of seventy-two years. His widow was Emma, daughter of Matthias Van Brackle, of Monmouth County, who, in 1820, represented his district in the State Legislature; she sur- vived the death of her husband a few years.
The children of Thomas and Emma Arrowsmith were nine in number,-Joseph Edgar, a physician of Keyport; John V., of the same village; Eleanor, who became the wife of Daniel Roberts; Cordelia, who died at the age of twenty years ; Thom- as, who became Quartermaster of the Eighth Pennsylvania Cavalry Regiment, and after the war engaged in teaching; Stephen and Emma, who died young ; George, who is the sub- Surge Annosmith ject of this memoir; and Ste- phen V., a successful educator. George Arrowsmith entered the Middletown Academy, where he had as fellow students a number of young men of unusual promise- Thomas Field, who is now deceased; Thomas Hanlon, who became a doc- tor of divinity and the president of Pennington Seminary; George C. Beek- man, who rendered valuable service as a member of the State Senate, and is well known as a capable lawyer and jurist; J. S. Applegate, who also was State Senator and attained distinction as a lawyer; and Jacob Stout, who became a prominent business man of Atlantic Highlands.
In his early days young Arrowsmith displayed a fondness for mili- tary literature; he read with avidity all he could command with relation to Washington and Napoleon, and his first composition was upon the former named of these two great soldiers. In 1854 he entered the freshman class
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of Madison University, at Hamilton, New York, and although the young- est student, but sixteen years of age, he took and maintained a high rank both in class work and in the college literary societies. He possessed fine musical ability, and throughout his academic course he sang in the college choir and glee club. In early youth he became a member of the Baptist Church, and he lived a life of Christian uprightness until the end. He was a Democrat in politics, and long before he had attained his majority he was a forceful advocate of his principles in public addresses and through letters printed in the local journals.
In 1859, when twenty years of age, he became a tutor in the Hamilton Grammar School, and at the same time he began a course of law reading under the preceptorship of Hon. Charles Mason, the leading lawyer in the county, and a supreme court judge.
In April, 1861, Mr. Arrowsmith passed a creditable examination and was licensed as a member of the New York bar. He was now well equipped for his profession, his talents had commended him to many influ- ential friends, and he was on the eve of entering upon a career which could not have been but useful to his fellows and highly honorable to himself. But on the instant came the assault upon the Flag of the Union. It was in his eyes a dastardly crime, and his fervent patriotism impelled him to turn aside from the path which he had marked out for himself in order to give his effort to the preservation of the Union.
The ink upon his lawyer's license was scarcely dry when the attack upon Fort Sumter was made. A crowd of excited citizens were gathered about the post office in Hamilton, discussing the affair, and one of the number expressed his wish that the Southern cause might triumph, and asserted that he would fight for it. Arrowsmith heard the remark and with terrible indignation denounced the speaker as a vile traitor, and then made a fervent appeal to his fellows to enlist with him for the defence of the flag. Fifty men responded, and April 29th they organized under the name of the Union Guards, and elected Arrowsmith as their captain. A few days later business in the town was suspended, when the entire populace escorted the volunteers to the train which was to bear them to their ren- dezvous at Utica. A beautiful silk flag was presented to the company, and revolvers to Captain Arrowsmith and his Lieutenants. Fervently patri- otic speeches were made, a minister offered a touching supplication, and parents and friends bade the patriotic youths tearful adieus.
With ranks filled to the maximum number, the Union Guards became Company D of the Twenty-sixth Regiment, New York Volunteers. For two months the regiment was in camp of instruction at Elmira. June 27, 1861, it proceeded to Washington, and went into cantonment on Meridian
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Heights. A month later it was in the vicinity of Bull Run, too late (no fault of it or its officers) to participate in the battle, but in ample time to assist in preventing pursuit by the Rebels and in aiding in the restoration of order among the scattered Union troops.
Captain Arrowsmith was, during all this time, devoting his entire effort to increasing the efficiency of his company through persistent drill- ing. His men appreciated his motive and services, and this they made manifest by presenting him with a sword, military gloves and complete tent furnishings. On various occasions duty required his presence in Washington, and he twice met President Lincoln.
Service now became arduous, and Company D bore a full share in the campaigning toward Richmond-marching, throwing up entrench- ments, picketing and skirmishing. At Pohich Church, Captain Arrow- smith, in command of his own and another company, made a reconnais- sance some eight miles beyond the lines, and dispersed a cavalry outpost. At Fort Lyon, in February, 1862, he was on duty for a fortnight as judge advocate of a general court martial. Somewhat later he again saw Presi- dent Lincoln, who reviewed the troops.
In June, 1862, Captain Arrowsmith received a commission as Captain and Assistant Adjutant General, United States Volunteers, issued by Sec -. retary of War Stanton, this promotion being made upon the recommenda- tion of his superior officers, among them General Ricketts, the division .commander. He was at once assigned to duty on the staff of General Z. B. Tower, commanding Second Brigade, Second Division, Third Corps, Army of Virginia. In this position he participated in the battles of Cedar Mountain, the Rappahannock, Thoroughfare Gap and the second Bull Run.
In the first named battle, that of Cedar Mountain, August 9, 1862, Captain Arrowsmith acquitted himself most creditably, and gained warm approval from General Tower. In the second Bull Run battle he displayed great bravery and received the sobriquet of "the young lion." General Tower was wounded and Captain Arrowsmith led the two regiments amid a shower of grape and canister. His escape without a wound was almost miraculous. A bullet passed through his hair, another struck his sword scabbard, and a third buried itself in his rolled blanket. Shortly after- ward his physical powers were greatly diminished through injuries in- curred in the fall of his horse, and General Tower asked for him a leave of absence, stating in his letter to the War Department that Captain Ar- rowsmith "for the last two months has continued on duty when most offi- cers would have reported sick, and has done active duty when it was very
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painful for him to sit upon his horse, so anxious was he to be at his post of duty and danger."
The leave was granted, and the young officer went to Washington for recuperation. Shortly afterward, when new regiments were to be formed, Senator Foote and other prominent men sought to have him ac- cept a colonelcy. This, however, would place his old personal friend, Pro- fessor Brown, of Madison University, in a subordinate position under him, and he magnanimously declined. The matter was pleasantly ter- minated by Brown being commissioned Colonel, with Arrowsmith as Lieu- tenant Colonel, of the One Hundred and Fifty-seventh Regiment, New York Volunteers, which on September 25, 1862, left New York and a few days later went into encampment at Centreville, Virginia, and became a part of Schurz's Division, Sigel's Corps. There was, however, delay in the acceptance of Captain Arrowsmith's resignation from the Staff Corps, and he did not join his new regiment until about the middle of November, nearly two months after it had taken the field. He was unknown to most of the men, but his reputation as a soldier was familiar to them, and he commanded their respect and admiration almost from his first appearance amongst them.
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