New Jersey

In Union County, New Jersey, many soldiers and sailors of African ancestry answered President Lincoln's call for troops during the Civil War and enlisted in regiments organized in Union County, the United States Colored Troops (USCT), out of-state-regiments and the United States Navy and Marine Corps. ¬They fought not only for country but also for their comrades in chains in the South and for the promise of equality that they had for so long been denied. ¬ rough their stories, never-before-seen photographs, documents and service records, local historian Ethel M. Washington tells a largely overlooked but riveting history of patriotic black servicemen in the North who defended the nation's ideals on the battle field even as they faced discrimination in the ranks and back home.

At the beginning of the Civil War, New Brunswick was positioned at the transportation and manufacturing hub of New Jersey. Many of the city's young men exchanged manufacturing equipment for rifles, and those whom they left behind witnessed the war through letters from their sons, brothers and husbands. Patriotism, a longing to earn more money and adventure lured these Brunswick Boys"--close friends and co-workers--to enlist. Their recollections offer insights into everyday life in New Jersey during the war--New Brunswick's factory system, education and medicine. These letters also reveal their struggles to survive amid battles and close encounters with death that so many soldiers faced, as well as their difficult transition back to civilian life. Local author Joanne Hamilton Rajoppi presents the fascinating stories of New Brunswick and the Civil War, gleaned from the letters of those who experienced it."

The New Jersey Butterflies, officially the Third New Jersey Cavalry, was formed for the last year of the Civil War. They were also known as the First American Hussars; their creation by an alcoholic ex-officer of the Union Army was supposed to entice men to join a galloping, dashing, romantic cavalry unit. Clothed in orange gilt trimmed hats and capes, they were supposed to charge armed only with a saber, in most traditional European Cavalry fashion, into battle and subdue an enemy armed with rifles. This book is not about battlefield configurations, but rather about the men themselves. Individual stories from original accounts will examine how this glorious, historically victorious, difficult and often tragic year affected their return to the daily world of doctors, teachers, lawyers, clerks and workmen.