CHAPTER XIII

Trenton in the Mexican, Civil, and Spanish-American Wars

BY SAMUEL S. ARMSTRONG

I. Introduction

II. Conditions in Trenton in 1846, and an Account of the City's Part in the Mexican War

IN A town or small city where one knows practically everybody, the inhabitants naturally come in closer and more intimate relations during the excitement attending events of local, state or national importance, than in larger communities where the population is more cosmopolitan and where changes in neighborhoods are made more frequent by the arrival of newcomers and the removal of older families from one section of the city to another - changes which tend to sever those friendly relations existing in smaller communities where such changes are rarer, and where members of neighboring families become comrades or associates in times of war, or political or social movements.

These were the conditions in Trenton in 1846, and before taking up Trenton's part in the Civil War, it may not be considered amiss to begin with this brief account of the War with Mexico in which conflict some of our citizens participated, who took part later in the long and bloody struggle of 1861-65.

In 1846 Trenton had a population of but ten thousand. Charles Burroughs was mayor, and was succeeded in 1847 by Samuel R. Hamilton. There was plenty of excitement in Trenton in those days; the Oregon boundary-line controversy was still unsettled and war with England seemed imminent; the troubles with Mexico were rapidly approaching a climax and Congress was the scene of heated debates on these momentous questions, reflected in discussions and disputes in general stores and barber shops, but principally in the barrooms of our inns and taverns, of which Trenton boasted a goodly supply in those days when prohibition and padlocks were not. Kay's United States Hotel, formerly the Indian Queen, on the site now occupied by the Trent Theatre, and the Trenton House, then under the management of Colonel William Snowden, were the favorite resorts for discussion. Here on any inclement afternoon - there was plenty of leisure in those days - would be gathered about the "social fire" our village statesmen of Democratic or Whig proclivities to argue pro and con the probabilities of a war with England over the Oregon question or with our sister republic of Mexico; some of those who frequented the precincts of Host Kay's bar, or the other resorts on these occasions, if mentioned by name, might be remembered by some older Trentonians of today. All danger, however, of war with England was averted by compromise, and the attention of our townsmen was fixed on the operations of General Taylor on the Rio Grande.

HOSTILITIES BREAK OUT

Hostilities began April 25, 1846, and on May 8 the battle of Palo Alto was fought, followed by the battle of Resaca de la Palma on May 9, where Captain May of the Second U. S. Dragoons made his famous charge. On May 18, 1846, General Zachary Taylor crossed the Rio Grande and occupied Matamoros.

The war was now on in earnest and on May 19, 1846, Secretary of War Marcy inclosed to Governor Stratton of New Jersey a copy of the Act of Congress, authorizing the President to accept the services of volunteers. On May 22, 1846, Governor Stratton issued his proclamation calling upon the uniformed organized militia companies and other citizens to enroll and report to the Adjutant General of the State as speedily as possible, in order that they might be held in readiness for muster, and the War Department advised thereof without delay. Under this call several of the uniformed militia organizations of the city offered their services but were not accepted at the time. The battle of Monterey was fought September 20, 21, 22, and 23, 1846; Buena Vista February 23, 1847, and the siege of Vera Cruz was ended by the fall of that city, March 29, 1847.

Salutes were fired in Trenton April 1, 1847, in honor of General Taylor's victories, on the "Commons" then in front of the "Cottages" on East State Street, between the Canal and Clinton Street; and on the streets, as in later years, "extras" were sold by newsboys announcing the various battles and victories gained by the United States army and volunteers in Mexico. There was keen rivalry between the Gazette and Daily News to be first on the streets with "news of battle."

"THE COTTAGES" AND COMMONS

On January 1, 1847, Lieutenant Robert P. Maclay of the Eighth Infantry, U. S. Army, opened a recruiting station at old Fort Rawnsley at the junction of Warren and Lamberton Streets. Lieutenant Maclay succeeded in enlisting some twenty-five or thirty recruits who were paraded in the streets from time to time, and forwarded in squads to Governor's Island for muster into federal service.

"FORT RAWNSLEY" HOTEL

Reporter Franklin S. Mills, sauntering one day in the neighborhood of this old recruiting station, gave vent to his patriotism in "City Gleanings" in the Gazette in the following strain:

CAPTAIN YARD'S COMPANY

This recruiting station was closed March 15, 1847, and removed to Newark. Captain Yard's company, to be mustered as Company G, Tenth U.S. Infantry, having been accepted and ordered to report at Fort Hamilton, prepared for leaving the city. On April 5, 1847, the company made a preliminary march through the streets and on halting at the Indian Queen was treated by Host Kay to refreshments. "The Alleghanians," a troupe of singers then performing in Trenton, came out on the front porch of the hotel and sang "The Soldier's Bride" and also a popular war song of the day dedicated to General Taylor, set to the air of "Dandy Jim of Caroline," entitled "Old Rough and Ready," beginning:

On the next day the company, consisting of Joseph A. Yard, Captain, George W. Taylor, First Lieutenant, Benjamin Yard and John S. Nevins, Second Lieutenants, and ninety-three non-commissioned officers and privates, left the drill hall on Mill Hill and marched to the City Hall where a collation was prepared for them by the citizens of Trenton. As they came up Greene Street, the City Hall bell began ringing and hundreds of anxious eyes were fixed upon the advancing troops. After partaking of the collation they returned to the street and were received by the Mercer Rifle Corps. The companies being drawn up in front of the City Hall on Greene Street, Samuel G. Arnold stepped to the front of the companies and on behalf of a number of citizens of Trenton, in a short speech, presented Captain Yard with a sword. Captain Yard in acknowledgment made a fitting response. The Mercer Rifle Corps under Captain Southard then took their position on the right of the line, and the march to Princeton, en route to Fort Hamilton, began. The troops passed through Second (State) Street to Warren and thence to the Princeton Pike. As the troops marched by the Indian Queen, the Trenton House and the Rising Sun Hotel (now the American House), they were repeatedly cheered by groups of citizens standing in crowds in front of the hotels and along the streets. The Rifle Corps, after escorting Captain Yard's command as far as the point where the Battle Monument now stands, took leave of the departing troops and they proceeded alone on their march. About a mile out of the town, the weather being inclement, they took off their knapsacks and putting them in the baggage wagons donned their great-coats and took a fair start for Princeton and from thence to their destination at Fort Hamilton in New York harbor, reaching there about 8:00 p.m. on April 8, and according to a letter from Private Alfred Murray published in Frank Mills' chatty "City Gleanings" were obliged to go to their bunks without any supper. In the morning they were treated to a breakfast of sea biscuit and raw pork. Dinner consisted of pork about half done and bean soup with beans so few they "had to dive to find 'em." For supper they were allotted a half pint of coffee each, with more fat pork. They remained cheerful, however, under these conditions in the commissary and placed no blame therefor on Captain Yard, who retained the respect and affection of his officers and enlisted men throughout their entire period of service. Captain Yard's company, designated as "G," Tenth U.S. Infantry, together with "H," the Camden company, also of the Tenth, which organization included in its number some Trenton recruits and was commanded by Captain Joshua W. Collett of Camden, left Fort Hamilton, April 11, 1847, on the brig G. B. Lamar, arriving at Matamoros, Mexico, May 5 of that year. Several interesting letters were published in the Trenton papers from Lieutenant Benjamin Yard, and other Trenton members of Company G telling of the experiences and privations of camp life in Mexico.

CAPTAIN DICKINSON'S COMPANY

After the departure of Captain Yard's company, recruiting for Captain Samuel Dickinson's company, "E," Tenth U.S. Infantry, was hurried to completion. Captain Dickinson was presented with a sword by the "National Guards" at their Armory, Isaac W. Lanning, Esq., making the presentation speech. Lieutenant Gershom Mott of Captain Dickinson's command was also the recipient of a sword from a number of friends of the young officer, who afterwards, for distinguished service in the Civil War, rose to the grade of Major General of Volunteers. This presentation took place at the Trenton House.
Before Captain Dickinson and his command left for Mexico the battles of Cerro Gordo and Churubusco had been fought and the army under General Winfield Scott, like General Taylor's gallant troops, continued victorious in their encounters with the brave soldiers of Mexico.
On Wednesday, May 12, 1847, a large crowd assembled at the railroad station on East State Street and the Canal to take final leave of Captain Dickinson and his officers and men. The company marched to the station at about half past 10 o'clock a.m., followed by many of their friends. Extra cars on the "Pilot Line" were provided for their transportation. The troops were hurried aboard and the train moved slowly from the station amid farewells of relatives and the cheers of friends and assembled citizens. This organization left Fort Hamilton May 4, 1847, arriving at Matamoros June 4, 1847. Company E consisted of Samuel Dickinson, Captain, William M. Lewis, First Lieutenant, Gershom Mott, Second Lieutenant, and eighty non-commissioned officers and privates.

OTHER NEW JERSEY TROOPS

On April 19, 1847, by direction of President Polk, the Secretary of War called on Governor Stratton for five companies of infantry to serve during the War with Mexico, unless sooner discharged. The Secretary of War designated Trenton as the point of mobilization of these companies and a camp for that purpose was established accordingly. This camp was pitched opposite the Nathan Beakes house near the Princeton Pike; Beatty Street, Morgan Avenue and Southard Street, south of Beakes Street, now run through the site of this old camp ground. The main body of the volunteers of the New Jersey Battalion under command of Lieutenant Colonel Dickinson Woodruff of this city - his home was the building and grounds now occupied by the Trenton Country Club - left September 3, 1847, for Governors Island, New York harbor, where the five organizations were consolidated into four companies, to the great disappointment of Captain William Napton, whose company containing most of the Trenton recruits in the battalion was broken up and his men distributed to complete other companies. This battalion was officered as follows: Lieutenant Colonel Dickinson Woodruff, commanding; Company A, Captain Henry A. Naglee; Company B, Captain James Reynolds; Company C, Captain David McDowell; Company D, Captain David Pierson.
The battalion was mustered into federal service at Fort Hamilton by Captain Minor Knowlton, First U.S. Artillery, September 4, 1847, and on the twenty-ninth of the same month left Governors Island on the ship Senator for Vera Cruz, where it arrived after a very stormy passage of six weeks.
But little notice appears to have been taken in Trenton of the departure of the New Jersey Battalion as most of the young men of Trenton enlisting for the war, with the exception of those recruited by Captain Napton and transferred to the four companies of the New Jersey Battalion, had gone with the Trenton companies then serving under Captains Dickinson and Yard in Mexico.
The New Jersey organizations were never in action or called to the front, and after remaining in Mexico for nearly a year in a condition of comparative inactivity, with the exception of garrison and convoy duty, were ordered home by the War Department for discharge from the service. The New Jersey Battalion left Vera Cruz on the ship Indiana and arrived at Fort Hamilton July 22, 1848, and on the third, fourth and fifth days of August was mustered out.
The two Trenton companies, E and G of the Tenth U.S. Infantry, together with Company H of Camden, left Matamoros July 10, 1848, on the ship Pharsalia and the barque General Taylor, and arrived at Fort Hamilton August 4, 1848, being mustered out August 21, 22 and 24, 1848.
As the Trenton organizations did not return to Trenton in a body, but came singly or in small detachments, they were not given a public reception on our streets, but later were tendered a reception at Camp Washington, Jackson's Woods.

CASUALTIES

The Trenton Companies of the Tenth U.S. Infantry and the organizations of the New Jersey Battalion during the Mexican Campaign did not escape without a number of casualties, as follows:

TENTH U. S. INFANTRY

Company E : There were eleven deaths in this organization, including Lieutenant O. M. Lewis of Trenton by yellow fever; one corporal and one private were drowned; one private was shot and killed by a sentry at Matamoros; one murdered, and six others, privates, died from yellow fever, dysentery, etc.
Company G : There were nine deaths in this company from yellow fever and dysentery, including Second Lieutenant Benjamin Yard, a brother of Captain Joseph A. Yard, and Private William Downie, both of Trenton.
Company H: This company, principally raised in Camden, contained some recruits from Trenton. It was commanded by Captain Joshua W. Collett of Camden. This officer was killed in a duel with Captain Alexander Wilkin of the Tenth U.S. Infantry, a regular army officer, January 21, 1848, at Carmargo, Mexico.
New Jersey Battalion: There was a total of twenty-seven deaths in this organization from fever, dysentery, etc., including two drowned; one murdered by Mexicans and one accidentally shot, making an aggregate of forty-seven deaths from all causes in the New Jersey organizations.

TRENTON'S REPRESENTATION IN THE REGULAR ARMY AND NAVY DURING THE MEXICAN WAR

For a city with a population of but ten thousand Trenton was well represented in the Regular Army and Navy during the period of the War with Mexico; and among those who served in the regular establishments and received recognition for galant and meritorious conduct appear the following:
Nathan Beakes Rossell was the oldest son of General Zachariah Rossell, who himself served as Major in the Twenty-fifth and Fifteenth U.S. Infantry during the War of 1812 and was afterwards appointed Adjutant General of New Jersey. Lieutenant Rossell was appointed Second Lieutenant Fifth U.S. Infantry, August 1, 1838. He was wounded in the shoulder at the storming of the bishop's palace at Monterey, September 21, 1846, and for gallant conduct at the battle of Molino del Ray was brevetted Major. He subsequently participated in all the engagements between Vera Cruz and the City of Mexico. This officer, still with the Fifth U.S. Infantry, was killed in action at Gaines Mills, Va., June 27, 1862.
Samuel Gibbs French was a native of Trenton and graduated from West Point in 1843 with the brevet rank of Second Lieutenant and assigned to the Third U.S. Artillery, July 1, 1843. He was twice brevetted for gallant and meritorious conduct at Monterey and Buena Vista. At the Fourth of July celebration in Trenton in 1847 Captain French was presented with a handsome sword by a group of his fellow citizens. This officer attained the rank of Major General in the service of the Confederate Army, and served with distinction throughout the Civil War.
George Clinton Westcott was appointed Second Lieutenant, Second U. S. Infantry, in 1838, promoted First Lieutenant November 15, 1846, and brevetted Captain September 13, 1847, for gallant and meritorious conduct in the battle of Chapultepec. He was the son of James D. Westcott of this city, formerly Secretary of State. Captain Westcott died of yellow fever January 8, 1853, on the steamer Tennessee, and his remains received an ocean burial.

In the U.S. Navy the following named officers served with distinction:
William E. Hunt was a Captain in the Navy and served throughout the Mexican War in command of the brig Porpoise, ten guns. His second in command was Lieutenant Raphael Semmes, famous during the Civil War as the Commander of the Confederate ship Alabama which played such havoc with our merchant marine. Captain Hunt, while in command of the sloop of war Levant, twenty guns, was lost at sea with his officers and entire crew. He was last heard from September 18, 1860, and regarded and noted by the Navy Department as lost June 30, 1861.
Charles G. Hunter was born and passed his boyhood in Trenton. He entered the Navy as Midshipman in 1824 and served as Lieutenant in the Mexican War. During that period he achieved considerable notoriety in an affair which created some controversy in naval circles and considerable excitement in Trenton. The facts in brief are as follows: Hunter was ordered by Commodore Matthew C. Perry to proceed with his vessel, the Scourge, three guns, to the port of the city of Alvarado, for purpose of blockade, pending the arrival of Commodore Perry with fifteen war ships, which were to act in concert with General Quitman, who with two thousand five hundred troops was to attack the city by land. When Perry, Commander-in-Chief, with his squadron, arrived at the port of Alvarado he was astounded to see the United States flag streaming from the forts and soon learned that Hunter acting on his own responsibility had opened fire on the forts immediately upon his arrival off the city and forced its surrender. The next day he proceeded up the river and captured the town of Fla-Co-Talpam with considerable stores and shipping. This was accomplished without loss of life or bloodshed on either side. His action caused much chagrin and disappointment in the squadron and Hunter was immediately placed under arrest. A court-martial was convened at once on board the flagship Mississippi and Hunter was found guilty of insubordination and disobedience of orders and sentenced to be dismissed from the squadron after a reprimand by Commodore Perry, who directed the reprimand to be read from the quarter-deck of every vessel in the squadron. This sentence seems to have been imposed for the purpose of humiliating Hunter and to dim the glory of the bloodless victory gained by him; but it rather had the effect of lowering Commodore Perry in public estimation. In his defense Lieutenant Hunter claimed that he, being on detached duty, was vested with discretionary power and was justified in assuming full responsibility, and did, with a single vessel and without bloodshed, that which Commodore Perry thought a large force by land and water was necessary to accomplish. At the Fourth of July celebration in Trenton in 1847, Hunter was presented with a silver pitcher, on which an inscription was engraved, commemorating the victories at Alvarado and Fla-Co-Talpam. The presentation speech was made by Mercer Beasley, Esq., on behalf of Lieutenant Hunter's friends. Lieutenant Hunter was subsequently assigned to the command of the revenue cutter Alleghany and ordered to the Mediterranean. Beyond the fact that he was dismissed from the Navy January 29, 1855, we find no trace of Hunter's subsequent career.
Philip F. Voorhees entered the Navy in 1809 as Midshipman and remained in active service until 1855 when he was placed on the retired list. He died at Annapolis, Md., February 26, 1862. Edward M. Yard entered the service as Midshipman, November 1, 1827; passed Midshipman June 10, 1833; Lieutenant February 28, 1838; served throughout the Mexican War; promoted Commander September 14, 1855; served in the Civil War until he was placed on the retired list; and served on special duty from time to time until he resigned May 3, 1866. He died in Trenton, May 27, 1889.
Bayse N. Westcott entered the Navy as Midshipman December 5, 1837, and passed the various grades until his final retirement as Commander, April 4, 1867. He served in the Mexican and Civil Wars, and died in Philadelphia December 6, 1891. He was a close friend of Captain Edward M. Yard and in their later years in Trenton the two old sea-dogs passed much of their time in each other's company, going over their varied experiences in the stirring days of the Mexican and Civil Wars.
Earl English graduated from Annapolis February 25, 1840, as Midshipman and passed through the several grades, reaching that of Rear Admiral, and remained in active service until his retirement in 1886. His residence at the time of his retirement was Culpepper, Va., where he died July 5, 1893. This officer served with distinction throughout the Mexican and Civil Wars.
Louis C. Sartori entered the Navy as Midshipman February 2, 1829; passed Midshipman June 15, 1837; became Lieutenant September 8, 1841; promoted Commander April 27, 1861 ; Captain, September 26, 1861 ; and became Commodore December 12, 1873. He went on the retired list June 3, 1874, and died January 11, 1899.
Watson Smith graduated from Annapolis, October 19, 1841; passed the several grades, reaching that of Lieutenant Commander July 16, 1862. He served in the Mexican War on the brig Porpoise under Captain William E Hunt. In 1855 he accompanied Captain H. J. Hartstene on the polar expedition fitted out by the Navy Department to search for Dr. E. K. Kane of the Advance, a vessel sent out in 1853 to discover, if possible, some traces of the fate of Sir John Franklin. No tidings had been received of Dr. Kane for over two years. The Hartstene expedition consisted of two vessels, the Release and the Arctic. Smith was acting master on the latter vessel. Commander Smith served in the Civil War until his death, December 19, 1864, of an illness contracted in the Red River expedition. In January 1861 he married Mary, a daughter of the late Counsellor Frederick Kingman of Trenton.

III. Political Feeling in the Civil War, Memorable Events in Trenton, and Civil War Songs

1 Taylor, Philadelphia in the Civil War, p. 13.

"COPPERHEADS," - BUT PATRIOTS

With the exception of editorials, more or less bitter at times, characteristic of the partisan press of the period, and taking advantage of every flaw in the policy of the administration for criticism, there was never at any time during the war any organized or concrete opposition to the conduct of the war by any group of so-called "Copperheads." The press in Trenton - the True American, advocating the principles of the Democratic party, and the Gazette and Republican those of the Republican party - vied with each other in their editorial columns and in non-partisan public meetings to arouse the people to a realization of the gravity of the coming struggle, the result of which was to determine the preservation or disruption of our great Union. With the actual outbreak of hostilities by the fall of Fort Sumter, all opposition for the time was changed by a suppression of partisan feeling and Democrats, fully as patriotic as their Republican opponents, sprang eagerly to the call to arms for the defense and preservation of a united country. The first complete brigade of infantry, fully uniformed, armed and equipped, to reach Washington from any State after the call of the President for 75,000 men, was the First Brigade, New Jersey Militia, three-months men, under command of Brigadier General Theodore Runyon, a Democrat of unimpeachable patriotism, with a large majority of his officers and enlisted men of the same political faith, who boldly and cheerfully hastened to a conflict which they had earnestly, but vainly, sought to avert. They realized, however, that the first duty of a citizen under the Constitution was to obey the laws of the constituted authorities of the state and national governments. Many of the great Southern leaders, notably Alexander H. Stephens, the statesman, and Robert E. Lee, the soldier, and many others prominent in the political and social life of the South, stood out in public speeches against secession until all opposition to that movement failed, and then, but not until then, from natural feelings of loyalty to their respective States, reluctantly, but with determination, threw their lives and fortunes into a cause which they doubtless realized would be finally lost as the South would not be able to overcome the vast resources of the opposing States, which indeed, notwithstanding the loss of much blood and treasure, emerged from the conflict unscathed by devastation of homes and property, such as was suffered by the South.

THE "TRUE AMERICAN" SUSPENDS PUBLICATION

Commenting on the disaster at Bull Run and the existing political situation the True American gave voice to sentiments to which Administration supporters took exception. On August 24 Of the same year, Judge Naar decided to suspend publication, declaring that while willing to give the support every loyal citizen owes to the government, "we cannot so compromise our self-respect as to continue publication under the positive or implied requirement that we are to yield a hearty support to all the measures of the Administration." The step was announced as follows:

It is with profound regret that we find ourselves under the necessity of announcing the intention from this day to suspend the publication of the True American until such time (should it ever occur) when we can under the guarantee of the Constitution and laws, publish it without fear of mob law or of governmental dictation . . . . We take pride in saying in defiance of all contradiction that nothing has ever appeared in its columns indicating disloyalty to the Government either of the Nation or the State, or in any way abusing the high privilege of perfect freedom accorded by the Constitution to the press. Further than this we must leave others to say. Nevertheless, it is admitted we have expressed our thoughts freely and in accordance with our honest convictions, but in language tempered by those social and conventionable restrictions intended to guard the intercourse of the members of a civilized community . . . .

2 Knapp, New Jersey Politics during the Period of the Civil War.

It seems to me perfectly clear that the charges made by each side against the other are in the main true. No facts were ever proved more conclusively than the fraud and corruption charged on the one side and the intimidation and cruelty charged on the other. The corruption of the one side seems as heinous as the cruelty of the other side is horrible.

And so it was that "fraud and corruption" won out, and "first became triumphant in American history." This reference to the election of 1876 seems pertinent to this narrative because of the fact that Dr. Simon B. Conover, a native of Cranbury, Middlesex County, well known in Trenton where he was at one time a resident and conducted a drug store at Broad and Market Streets, was a United States Senator from Florida during the "Carpet-bag" regime, serving from 1873 to 1879 and figured in the machinations resulting in the delivery of the electoral vote of Florida to the Republican presidential candidate.

STATE AND CITY OFFICIALS IN THE CIVIL WAR

Because in the stirring times of war the character of the men whose hands are at the helm of government is of even greater importance than in "the piping times of peace," it is of interest to know who occupied the positions of trust in the city and state during the Civil War. The following list is therefore given:

ABRAHAM LINCOLN IN TRENTON

An event of historic interest was the reception to President-elect Lincoln in this city, February 21, 1861, while en route to Washington for his inauguration. The party accompanying Mr. Lincoln was met at Jersey City by Governor Olden and a joint committee of the Legislature as the State's Escort to Trenton. The train containing Mr. Lincoln and suite arrived at the railroad station, then located at State Street and the Canal, at 12 o'clock noon of February 21 and was greeted by a large crowd that had assembled at that point. When the train came to a stop Mr. Lincoln and his suite stepped to the platform and proceeded to the Tremont House, kept by Major Joseph Cunningham, where His Honor, Mayor Franklin S. Mills, was waiting to receive them, and to whom Mr. Lincoln was presented by the Hon. William L. Dayton. The mayor welcomed the distinguished visitor in a brief speech to which Mr. Lincoln responded with a few remarks on the pride and pleasure he felt in accepting the hospitality of our historic town. The crowd about the Tremont House and from there to Montgomery Street made the thoroughfare almost impassable. At the conclusion of Mr. Lincoln's brief response to the mayor, the cavalcade formed under Captain Robert C. Belleville, chief marshal, and his aides in the following order:
Horsemen; Paterson Blues; Trenton Rifles; Barouche with the President-elect and State Committee; Suite of President-elect; Mayor and Common Council; Citizens.
Arriving at the State House Mr. Lincoln was first taken to the Senate Chamber where he was introduced to President Perry and the other senators. After a short address of welcome by the president of the Senate, to which Mr. Lincoln made a brief response, he was taken to the Assembly Chamber and introduced by Speaker Teese to the members. Here also brief speeches of welcome and response were made. After these ceremonies the party was escorted to the Trenton House where a collation had been prepared.
In response to repeated calls and continuous cheering by the people assembled on Warren Street, Mr. Lincoln stepped from a window on the second story to a staging which had been erected and spoke to the crowd below in his characteristic manner as follows:

I was kindly invited by your representatives in the Legislature to visit the Capital of your honored State and in acknowledging their kind invitation I was compelled to respond to the welcome of the presiding officer of each body and I suppose they intended I should speak to you through them as they are the representatives of all of you; and if I should speak here, I should only have to repeat in a great measure much that I then said which would be uninteresting to my friends who greet me here. I have no speech to make but merely appear to you and let the ladies look at me. And as to the latter, I think I have decidedly the best of the bargain. My friends, allow me to bid you farewell.

3 In Philadelphia in the late afternoon of February 21, 1861, following his reception in Trenton, I saw Abraham Lincoln as he, with his suite, alighted from carriages at the Ninth Street entrance to the Continental Hotel. I saw him again in the latter part of December 1864, in Grover's Theatre, Washington, at a play entitled "Gamea; or the Hebrew Fortune Teller." It was a rather swash buckling affair featuring a female actress "Vestali," as a cavalier in the leading part. There was a good bit of sword play in the piece.

When Lincoln came in, entirely unattended, leading a little boy by the hand, he passed around to the right, back of what used to be called the "dress circle," and entered the lower box. The theatre was about half filled, and with the exception of some hand-clapping, to which he made no acknowledgement, no other notice was taken of his presence. On both of these occasions I noticed that apparent languor in his movements and that expression of weariness in his face which many writers have attributed to the foreshadowing in his mind of coming events, or the cares of his great office, but which I think are characteristics common to the long-limbed, loose-jointed and slow-moving western men of his physical type. - S.S.A.

MEMORABLE DAYS IN TRENTON

All through the four weary years of the War the interest of our citizens was centered largely on the movements of the Army of the Potomac. News from armies in the far South and Southwest attracted but perfunctory attention. Newsboys with "extras" on the hot summer afternoons of those eventful years, lazily droning out "a-n-o-t-h-e-r b-a-t-t-1-a i-n M-i-z-o-u-r-e-e," found few purchasers; but all intelligence from the Army of the Potomac - almost all the boys from Trenton were in that army, - was eagerly and anxiously looked for, and extra editions of local or Philadelphia papers containing tidings of a battle in Virginia found ready purchasers. So, at different periods during the progress of the war there were days of much excitement in Trenton; days in the first year of the war when the streets of Trenton in front of the True American office at the southwest corner of Warren and Front Streets and the State Gazette and Republican office at the northeast corner of State and Warren Streets were the gathering points for crowds desirous of hearing the latest news from Washington and Virginia as announced on bulletin boards at those places. Few, very few, now living can recall to memory those early years of the '60's.
The first of those exciting days was that on which news of the attack on Fort Sumter, followed by its reduction and surrender, was received. This news was of special interest to our citizens as Major Robert Anderson, commanding officer of Fort Sumter, was well known and had many warm friends in Trenton, he having been stationed here as inspector of iron-work turned out by the Trenton Iron Works Company, under contracts with the United States government for public buildings constructed under the Treasury Department from July 20, 1855, to November 15, 1859. The fall of Fort Sumter provoked much feeling in Trenton, and newspaper offices, and even private homes, were besieged by crowds demanding the display of the national colors by those looked upon as being lukewarm in expressions of patriotism. The call of the President for seventy-five thousand militia; the firing on troops passing through Baltimore en route to Washington; the crossing of the Union troops over the Long Bridge to Virginia; the tragic death in Alexandria of Colonel Ellsworth of the New York Fire Zouaves at the hands of James W. Jackson, the proprietor of the Marshall House, who shot him as he was descending the stairway of the hotel carrying over his arm a Confederate flag which he had just taken from the roof, followed by the killing of Jackson by Sergeant Brownell of the Zouaves, served to keep alive the excitement on our streets during those early days of the war.

THE NEWS FROM BULL RUN AND FROM WILLIAMSBURG

The height of popular agitation was reached, however, on that memorable Sunday, July 21, 1861, when rumors of the defeat of the Union Army under command of Major General Irwin McDowell at Bull Run were received, - rumors verified on the days immediately following with particulars of the disaster, and of the panic of our troops as they fled in dismay, pursued, as they imagined, by the dreaded Black Horse Cavalry and the "Louisiana Tigers."
The retreat from Bull Run was not without a humorous side. Many civilians (including some from Trenton) and newspaper correspondents had gone down to Washington, and from thence, in hacks or other conveyances, over into Virginia to witness what was to be an easy victory for the Union Army; but when they realized that our army was badly beaten arid retreating in confusion they were to be found in the van of the fleeing and disordered troops on their mad stampede to Washington. A few days afterwards "Charlie" Jay, writing to the True American, said: "Things are looking better; the retreat has slowed down to a walk."
Early in the spring of 1862 the Army of the Potomac under command of McClellan was advancing on its drive for Richmond; Yorktown was besieged in April and May by the Union troops and the battle of Williamsburg was fought May 5, 1862. Of the New Jersey Volunteers, the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Regiments took part in this engagement. In the Fifth Regiment Captain Robert S. Gould's company, "E," Lewis Guards, and Captain Charles Ewing's company, "B," Livingston Guards, of the Sixth New Jersey Infantry, were the Trenton companies engaged, and particulars of the battle were awaited with much apprehension by those having relatives and friends in the New Jersey organizations. In the delay of any official list of casualties the anxiety for definite information increased.
When authentic particulars were finally received with lists of the killed and wounded in the New Jersey regiments the people of Trenton were for the first time brought to a realization of the tragedy of war, more especially as it was then learned that on that bloody day at Williamsburg fell two gallant young officers from Trenton - Lieutenant DeKlyn Lalor of Company E and Aaron Wilkes, Adjutant of the Sixth Regiment, besides Private Walter S. McCormick of Captain Ewing's company. There were several other of our young men serving in the ranks of the Jersey troops killed or wounded on that day.
When the bodies of Lalor, Wilkes, and McCormick reached Trenton, they were buried with military honors. Walter McCormick was an estimable young man, an employee in the office of the True American, and had many friends in Trenton.
Another happening, June 23, 1862, causing considerable excitement in Trenton, was an accident to a troop train running on the Camden and Amboy Railroad along the Delaware and Raritan Canal between two and three miles below the city. The train consisted of twenty-five cars heavily loaded with men, horses, cannon and other ordnance stores, together with commissary and quartermaster stores, etc., of the Eighth Battery, Artillery, Massachusetts Volunteers.
President Lincoln and suite returning from West Point had passed through Trenton over this road a few hours before the accident en route to Washington via Camden. After the special had passed the spot where later the accident occurred a gang of workmen making some repairs, not knowing of the coming of the troop train, had removed several rails. The engineer of the troop train, although sighting the working gang, failed to notice the absence of any rails and ran ahead, causing the accident which resulted in the overturning of some of the cars and the drowning of two men, George E. Smith and Hosea Packard, and twelve horses of the battery. As this accident occurred within the boundaries of Mercer County, Coroner LaRue called a jury and held an inquest on the bodies of the unfortunate men and rendered a verdict in accordance with the facts without censuring the engineer of the train or the working gang.

GENERAL MC CLELLAN'S SOJOURN IN TRENTON

An event of particular local interest was the arrival here of General George B. McClellan after he was relieved by executive order from the command of the Army of the Potomac, with instructions from the General-in-Chief to turn his command over to General Burnside, repair to Trenton and report for further orders.
General McClellan arrived in Trenton at 4 a.m., November 12, 1862, on the "owl train" from Washington. He was accompanied by Colonel E. H. Wright, son of former United States Senator William Wright, of Newark; Lieutenant Colonel E. M. K. Hudson, Lieutenant Colonel Paul von Radowitz, Lieutenant Colonel A. V. Colburn, Captain J. C. Duane and several other officers, civilians, clerks, etc. They proceeded directly to the State Street House (now the Hotel Sterling), then under the management of Charles M. Norcross, where quarters for himself, family and staff had been reserved, and where Mrs. McClellan with her parents, General and Mrs. Marcy, and near friends were anxiously awaiting their arrival.
After greeting relatives and friends the General retired to his room for much needed rest. He remained in his room all day, admitting only a limited number of visitors and those being personal friends and acquaintances. In the evening an immense crowd assembled in front of the hotel and the Trenton Cornet Band commenced a serenade. After several airs had been played, the Hon. Andrew Dutcher appeared and requested the assemblage to preserve order as General McClellan was about to come out. A few minutes later McClellan stepped quickly out to the front steps at the hotel entrance, and was greeted with tremendous cheering. He looked well and appeared to be in robust health. With a few appropriate remarks, Mr. Dutcher introduced him to the assembly and he at once began speaking in a clear voice, as follows:

My friends - for I feel that you are all my friends - I stand before you, not as a maker of speeches, not as a politician, but as a soldier. I came among you to seek quiet and repose, and from the moment of my arrival I have received nothing but kindness. Although I appear before you as a stranger, I am not altogether unacquainted with your history. Your gallant soldiers were with me in every battle, from the siege of Yorktown to the Battle of Antietam, and I here bear witness to their devotion to the cause for which we are fighting. [Here the cheering caused the General to pause for nearly ten minutes; continuing, he said:] I also have to speak of the ever faithful, ever true Taylor; the dashing and intrepid Kearny-men who have given their lives for the maintenance of our government, and before bidding you good night, I have this advice to give you: While the Army is fighting, you as citizens must see that the war is prosecuted for the preservation of the Union and the Constitution, for your nationality and your rights as citizens.

In Camp Near Fredericksburg, Va., November 22, 1862.

The removal of McClellan has thrown a deep gloom over the army, which in my opinion, may prove disastrous to our army. The whole army had more confidence in him than in any other man in the country; and he could get more fight out of them than any other man ....

One is surprised after a short visit [to him] to account for the bitterness of the radical press, except upon the theory that he is, in look and gesture, mind and manners, the very opposite of radicalism.

Of course the criticism of McClellan in the local press was not all favorable; articles were written charging him with being overcautious, and procrastinating in his movements in following up advantages gained, etc. His loyalty and courage were never questioned.
McClellan's relief from command of the Army of the Potomac terminated his service in the Army of the United States. He remained in Trenton some two months until his affairs with the War Department were adjusted and he then for a time occupied a home in New York City until he finally established himself and family in a beautiful home on the Orange Mountains in New Jersey.

THE PENNSYLVANIA EMERGENCY

The disasters to the Union arms in Virginia following the removal of McClellan from the command of the Army of the Potomac had a depressing effect on the people, manifested in Trenton and elsewhere by the difficulty experienced in obtaining recruits or reenlistments for the diminishing ranks of the regiments in the field and for the new organizations forming under calls for more troops. This difficulty was increased for the reason that many members of regiments whose term of service was expiring were induced by officers of the U.S. Army to enlist in the regular service, and it was only by offers of large bounties that cities, counties and townships were enabled to fill their respective quotas without recourse to the impending draft. The draft was most unpopular and enrolling officers were greatly hampered in the work assigned to them in connection therewith. The invasion of Maryland and Pennsylvania by Lee in June and July 1863, terminating in the battle of Gettysburg, was a source of disturbed feeling in Trenton. The streets were filled by anxious crowds eager to learn of the movements of the Confederate Army under Lee; the telegraph office was besieged and the street in front was almost impassable. On June 15, 1863, President Lincoln called for one hundred thousand militia to repel the threatened invasion of Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio by the Confederate Army, and in response to this call, and an urgent request from Governor Curtin of Pennsylvania, Governor Parker under date of June 17, 1863, called upon the citizens of the State to organize as military companies to march at once to the assistance of Pennsylvania during the emergency existing there. Under this call the following named militia organizations from Trenton volunteered for the relief of Pennsylvania:

Company A, New Jersey Militia: Captain, William R. Murphy; three commissioned officers and sixty-one enlisted men.

Company B, New Jersey Militia: Captain, George F. Marshall; three commissioned officers and thirty-nine enlisted men.

Company C, New Jersey Militia: Captain, James C. Manning; three commissioned officers and fifty enlisted men.

Company I, New Jersey Militia: Captain, Joseph A. Yard; three commissioned officers and thirty-nine enlisted men.

The Trenton companies with the other militia companies from New Jersey under this call, upon their arrival at Harrisburg, Pa., reported to Major General Couch, commanding the Department of Militia, and were organized into two battalions. Captain William R. Murphy of Company A was assigned to the command of the First Battalion. At the end of their thirty days' service they were returned to Trenton for discharge. The thanks of Governor Curtin were tendered for their service in Pennsylvania.
Except for receptions given in June to the Twenty-first and Twenty-second Infantry, New Jersey Volunteers, on their return after the expiration of their term of service, the town had quieted down from the excitement attending the invasion of Pennsylvania.
In March 1864 General Grant was placed in command of all armies in the field, himself taking command of the Army of the Potomac. May 4 he began activities by crossing the Rapidan and entered the Wilderness where he was attacked by Lee and the Battle of the Wilderness was fought. The result was indecisive and frustrated Grant's plan of placing himself between Lee and Richmond. The battles of Spottsylvania and Cold Harbor followed, and within some thirty days after the crossing of the Rapidan, Grant had lost in killed, wounded and missing 54,939 men, and no advantage had been gained. It was after the battle of Spottsylvania that Grant wrote to Halleck, "I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer." Lee's losses were much less; indeed, as matters stood after the butchery of Cold Harbor, his army, strengthened with some reenforcements, emerged from thirty days of incessant fighting almost as large as it was at the beginning of the campaign. It did take Grant "all summer" and well into the spring of 1865, at a dreadful sacrifice of life, before the Confederacy was finally vanquished.
The presidential campaign of 1864 resulting in the reelection of Abraham Lincoln was of much interest in Trenton as General McClellan, the Democratic nominee, during his stay here after his relief from the command of the Army of the Potomac had made many friends in our community; and with the parades, meetings and flag-raisings of both political parties; with speeches by prominent men of New Jersey and neighboring States; and the current war news, the town was kept very much alive, although people were getting war-weary and the activities of the armies in the field raised but little interest.

THE END OF THE WAR

Much apprehension was felt in the early spring of 1865 when it was announced that a draft to fill Trenton's quota would begin March 28, at the Provost Marshal's office in Odd Fellows Hall, at the southwest corner of Greene and Hanover Streets, and continue daily until the quota was completed. The lists of names drawn were published daily and the substitute brokers prepared for a big harvest. Substitutes were furnished by these thrifty patriots at prices ranging from $500 to $1,000, and notorious bounty jumpers enlisted early and often in the place of drafted citizens. But the end was rapidly approaching and it was soon apparent that our citizens drafted under this last call would not be mustered into service. First came the fall of Richmond, and on Sunday, April 9, 1865, a little after 10 p.m., news was received of the surrender of General Robert E. Lee and the remnant of his army. The news ran through the town like wild-fire; crowds passed through State Street and Warren Street cheering, and the City Hall bell and the church bells began ringing and kept it up until midnight. The rejoicing in the streets was kept up until nearly daybreak; and on Tuesday a salute of two hundred guns was fired on the State House grounds in the rear of the Capitol in honor of the final victory of the Union arms in Virginia.
In a few days an order was issued by the Secretary of War directing that all further recruiting and drafting be stopped, to the great relief of those citizens of Trenton whose names had appeared in the lists of conscripts.
But the rejoicing at the success of our armies was soon to be turned to expressions of horror and grief, for on the early morning of Saturday, April 15, the shocking news was received of the assassination on the night before of President Lincoln in Ford's Theatre, Washington, by John Wilkes Booth, and in a few hours the decorations of victory on our public buildings and many private homes were changed for the inky emblems of mourning. With the final passage on April 24 through our city of the funeral train bearing the body of the beloved President, stricken down in the hour of national victory, and with the welcome tendered by the city authorities to the returning veterans by detachments or complete organizations, terminating with the reception, May 2, 1866, to the Thirty-fourth Infantry, New Jersey Volunteers, which had been retained on duty in Alabama, Trenton's memorable connections with the great war were ended.

SONGS OF THE CIVIL WAR

No people, unless in old Scotland in the feudal days of the clans and the border wars, ever produced so many battle songs as those written by American song-writers during the period of the Civil War. The attempt will be made here to give a brief account of some of the more popular ones, taken entirely from memory as but little reference to them could be found in any literature on the war of 1861-65. They were all popular in Trenton.
"Dixie" came out in 1860, before the Civil War, and, becoming popular in the South, was adopted as its own. In addition to "Dixie," the only songs of the South that survived the war were "Maryland, My Maryland," set to the music of a beautiful German air, and the "Bonnie Blue Flag that Bears a Single Star."
In the North one of the earlier songs was "When This Cruel War Is Over." The air to this sentimental song was plaintive in tone and became extremely popular. President Lincoln's call for three hundred thousand troops brought out "We Are Coming, Father Abraham, Three Hundred Thousand More." "John Brown's Body Lies a-Mouldering in the Grave, But His Soul Goes Marching On," became very popular. The music was taken from a revival song of the day, beginning, "Say, brothers, will you meet us," and was also adapted by Julia Ward Howe as the music to her "Battle Hymn of the Republic."
"'Tis Just Before the Battle, Mother"; "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp the Boys Are Marching"; "Who Will Care for Mother Now" and "The Battle Cry of Freedom," or "We'll Rally Round the Flag, Boys," were also much favored.
"When Johnny Comes Marching Home" was a tremendous favorite and because of its brisk, catchy melody was used by the young people of those faraway days at the wind-up, or "All Hands Around" of the "Lancers," and the quadrille.
When McClellan, after his successful campaign in West Virginia, was .assigned to the command of the Army of the Potomac, "McClellan Is Our Leader" was produced, and when he was first removed from the command of that army, the clamor from the veterans of the Army of the Potomac for his restoration was voiced in "Give Us Back Our Old Commander," which was done, and he defeated Lee at Antietam.
In 1862, when McClellan's army fell back from before Richmond and reoccupied some of its former camp sites, the song "Tenting Tonight on the Old Camp Ground" became, and still is, a favorite melody.
The late justice Alfred Reed of the Supreme Court, in those days a popular young lawyer, had a fine tenor voice and was fond of these songs which he sang with much expression. The writer remembers one in particular which he heard him sing. It was of a faithful old slave bewailing the sad changes that war had brought to the old plantation. It ran as follows:

IV. Services of the State and City in the Civil War

IN 1861 the militia forces of the State were organized under the revision of the militia law of April 17, 1846, which divided the militia into county brigades, each under the command of a Brigadier General; the several brigades were formed into divisions designated as the First, Second, Third and Fourth Divisions, respectively. Although some amendments had been made to this antiquated Act between 1846 and 1861, the general provisions were the same, dividing the militia between the ages of eighteen and forty-five into two classes, the active and the reserve; the former comprised all persons liable to military duty who were enlisted in the uniformed companies of the several brigades, and the reserve consisted of the residue or unorganized portion of the militia.
Many years of profound peace, and the absence of any cause for alarm, had left the reserve militia entirely unorganized and to a great extent unenrolled throughout the State, while the active militia or uniformed companies were almost entirely supported by patriotic individual effort with little or no encouragement from the state or national government. The active militia amounted in the aggregate to about four thousand four hundred officers and enlisted men, consisting in a great measure of scattered companies allotted to the several county brigades, and these organizations in many instances were but poorly armed and equipped. So when the State was suddenly called upon to detail from the militia a brigade of four regiments of infantry for immediate service, with a probability of being called on later for a larger force, an immediate organization of the reserve militia was deemed necessary and orders for that purpose were issued.
In the meantime existing uniformed companies were raised, and within a week after the acceptance of the first company the required brigade was organized; fifteen days after the call to arms by the Federal Executive, New Jersey had her brigade ready to move to Washington, for national defense.

ARMS AND EQUIPMENT

The arms and accoutrements in possession of the State in the beginning of the year 1861 were limited in quantity and of inferior pattern. Rifled, percussion and flint-lock muskets aggregating about six thousand stands with less than one thousand rifles of more modern pattern were in the hands of the uniformed companies of the militia. Many of these arms were of obsolete pattern and were at once called in, and those in store at the Arsenal 4 were put in condition for active service. Under contracts for these repairs about seven thousand five hundred flint-lock muskets, caliber 58, were changed to percussion and rifled to suit the required service.

4 This old building, the scene of so many activities during the Mexican, the Civil, the Spanish-American and the World War, covering a period of nearly ninety years, has been abandoned as an arsenal and turned over by the Quartermaster General to the State Department of Institutions and Agencies.

All serviceable military property stored at the Trenton Arsenal has been removed to the new arsenal completed in 1928 at the State camp grounds, Sea Girt.

When the present State prison was finished in 1836, the inmates of the old penitentiary were transferred to the new institution and the Mercer County authorities were permitted the use of the old building as a jail until the new County jail, then in course of construction, was completed. After the removal of the County prisoners to the new jail, the old prison, as had been recommended by Governors Southard and Vroom, was turned over to General Samuel R. Hamilton, Quartermaster General, to be used as an arsenal for the storage of the ordnance, ordnance stores and camp and garrison equipage which had up to that time been kept in the old State Bank building at the northwest corner of Warren and Bank Streets and in the loft of the State House.

There were no breech-loading rifles in possession of the State and few, if any, in the U. S. Army in 1861.

ORGANIZATION OF TROOPS

On the fifteenth of April, 1861, President Lincoln made his memorable proclamation, calling on the militia of the several States for seventy-five thousand men for three months' service for the national defense, and on the same day the Secretary of War notified Governor Olden that New Jersey's quota would require, including officers and enlisted men, a force amounting to 3,123.
On April 17 Governor Olden issued his proclamation calling on the militia for four regiments of infantry to total in strength the number shown in the schedule accompanying the requisition of the Secretary of War. Under date of April 16 the Adjutant General, Robert F. Stockton, ordered Captain William R. Murphy, Company A National Guard, First Regiment, Mercer Brigade, to report to the Quartermaster General of the State, which order was complied with, and on the same day General Lewis Perrine, Quartermaster General, directed Captain Murphy to proceed with his command to the State Arsenal for guard duty at that place. The duty was performed by that organization with such fidelity as to elicit the commendation of Governor Olden at the termination of this important service, for the Arsenal had suddenly become the scene of much activity.
The Arsenal buildings being found inadequate for the increased demand on their facilities in the work of equipping the four regiments, a large and commodious building was constructed, twenty-five feet wide by one-hundred and fifty feet long, and two stories in height.
The State was without camp and garrison equipage, and vacant houses were rented for the accommodation of the Third and Fourth Regiments. They were billeted at the different hotels and boarding houses for meals. For the accommodation of the First and Second Regiments, barracks were hastily erected within the Arsenal inclosure, and two mess-halls, each one hundred and fifty feet long with a commodious kitchen, were also constructed. Subsistence for the troops was furnished by contract.
The First Regiment was clothed at Newark, by authority of the Quartermaster General at the expense of the State. The Second Regiment was mostly clothed by a committee of liberal and patriotic gentlemen, citizens of Jersey City, at their own expense without authority from the State. The entire brigade of four regiments was armed and equipped at the Arsenal.
The organization, arming and equipping of the First Brigade, New Jersey Militia, being completed, it was mustered into the service of the United States at Trenton, on April 30, 1861, to serve three months, by Major Theodore T. A. Laidley and Lieutenant Alfred T. A. Torbert of the U.S. Army, and left Trenton for the seat of war May 3, 1861. In consequence of the destruction of railroads and bridges between Philadelphia and Baltimore, and in order that no time might be lost thereby in forwarding the troops when ready for marching orders, fourteen steam transports were chartered by General Perrine, fitted up at great expense, and the entire command accompanied by a state battery of four brass field-pieces, all under command of Brigadier General Theodore Runyon, left Trenton for Washington. General Runyon with his brigade reported to President Lincoln at Washington, May 6, 1861, being the first fully organized brigade to reach the national capital for its defense. This prompt response to the call of the President was acknowledged in a letter from the Secretary of War to Governor Olden in which he said:

Allow me to tender to you the thanks of this department for the very prompt and efficient manner in which you, and the people of your State, have responded to the requisition made upon you.

The New Jersey troops being among the earliest to reach the seat of war, and being the only fully organized brigade there, were at once assigned to the important and urgent duty of strengthening the defenses of the national capital, at that time seriously threatened and supposed to be in imminent danger; and their timely services were repeatedly acknowledged. This brigade was not in active service at the battle of Bull Run, Sunday, July 21, 1861, but as reported by Major General Irwin McDowell commanding the army at the Bull Run disaster July 21, 1861, the First and Second Regiments, New Jersey Volunteer Militia, were ordered up from Runyon's brigade to assist in checking, or covering the retreat of the panic-stricken army. The Third Regiment (containing the three Trenton companies) and the Fourth Regiment, New Jersey Militia, performed no other service during the battle of Bull Run than guarding communication with Washington by way of Vienna, and the Orange and Alexandria Railroad.
Upon the expiration of their term of service July 31, 1861, the four regiments, New Jersey Volunteer Militia, of Runyon's brigade were honorably discharged; a large portion of them, however, immediately volunteered their services and were mustered in with one or the other of the three-year regiments then forming.
According to General Runyon's report to the governor, the brigade lost by death from all causes, during its absence from New Jersey, but four men, two of whom were of the First Regiment, and the others of the Fourth. Ensign Henry K. Zehner of Company D, Third Regiment, Captain Mulford's company, died July 28, 1861, at Washington, D.C. There were no other casualties in the Trenton companies.
Lieutenant Zehner was the first citizen from Trenton and the first commissioned officer from New Jersey to give up his life in the service of his country, and the arrival of his remains in Trenton was made the occasion of the first military funeral here of the Civil War.

THREE-YEAR REGIMENTS, VOLUNTEERS

Trenton had now become the scene of great military activity. 5 Tents were erected in the Arsenal yard and were also pitched in the grounds about the State House. Most of the rooms in the State House were turned over to the use of military officers, who in their attractive uniforms were constantly passing in and out of the building. 6 With the rotunda and corridors filled with recruits; the marching and countermarching of detachments and squads of troops in the streets to the inspiring music of fife and drum; the foreign-looking Zouaves with baggy Ted trousers and fez; mounted officers and orderlies dashing to and from the State House to the Arsenal and the mobilization camps, our quiet town suddenly put on much of the "pomp and circumstance of war" strangely at variance with the sleepy period of those peaceful years following the return of the volunteers from Mexico.

5 Trenton was the headquarters of the Second Congressional District of New Jersey, which district was composed of Ocean, Burlington, Monmouth and Mercer. The Provost Marshal of the district was James R. Coppock, stationed in Trenton at the southeast corner of Warren and Front Streets, to take charge of the recruiting, enrolling, drafting, arresting of deserters, etc., in his district.

From the beginning of the Civil War until October 26, 1861, the State of New Jersey was in the Military Department of the East under the command of Major General John E. Wool. From October 26, 1861, to February 1, 1862, New Jersey was not in any military department. From February 1, 1862, to March 22, 1862, the State was in the Military Department of the Potomac, under the command of Major General George B. McClellan. From March 22, 1862 to February 6, 1863, New Jersey was in the Middle Department under the command of Major General John A. Dix, Major General John E. Wool, and Major General Robert C. Schenk, respectively. From February 6, 1863, to the end of the war, it was in the Department of the East, under the command of Major General John E. Wool, Major General John A. Dix, and Major General Joseh Hooker, respectively.

6 The first camp in Trenton was just outside of the Arsenal walls and was called Camp Olden; later this name was given to the large camp on the Sandtown road near Pond Run, where many of the New Jersey regiments were mobilized and mustered into Federal service.
Camp Perrine was located on the East bank of the Delaware and Raritan canal opposite the State Prison. There was a cavalry camp, Camp Halsted, along the feeder near Moses Woods, now the junction of West Hanover and Passaic Streets. Camp Bayard was situated west of South Broad Street and south of Cass.

The war had meanwhile assumed a magnitude which made imperative a call for a larger number of troops for a longer term of service for its suppression, and May 3, 1861, the President issued his proclamation calling for men for three-year service, under which call three regiments were assigned to New Jersey.
A proposition was made by Governor Olden to the War Department at Washington for the State to furnish the necessary clothing, equipment and camp and garrison equipage as specified in general orders, to be inspected and paid for in accordance with the customary rules of .the service as observed towards other contractors. The proposition was accepted and within three weeks the necessary supplies were furnished and delivered at the Arsenal. On the twenty-eighth of June, 1861, the three regiments were sent forward by rail to Washington, amply provided with everything necessary for active service.
Following the consternation and excitement occasioned by the overwhelming defeat sustained by the Union forces at Bull Run, all hopes for a speedy suppression of the rebellion vanished and it was realized that this country was to face a long, obstinate and bloody war. Under date Of July 29, 1861, the Secretary of War under authority of the President called on Governor Olden for five new regiments in addition to the three three-year regiments then in the field. The Fourth Regiment was the first of these five regiments to leave for the front.

ORGANIZED MILITIA COMPANIES OF TRENTON SERVING IN NEW JERSEY REGIMENTS

Of the forty-one militia companies formed in Trenton from August 12, 1861, to December 18, 1861, only eleven attained to the numerical strength requisite for muster into Federal service. Consequently, many members of the weaker organizations were transferred to the companies nearest completion, to fill them up to the required strength. These completed organizations served in the following-named regiments:

THREE-MONTHS MEN
Third Regiment, Militia
Company A : Joseph A. Yard, Captain; Robert S. Gould, First Lieutenant; Charles Ewing, Ensign. Company C (Wilkinson Volunteers): Isaac Paul Lykens, Captain; John W. Neal, First Lieutenant; John R. Beatty, Ensign. Company D (Jersey Blues): Samuel Mulford, Captain; Franklin S. Mills, First Lieutenant; Henry K. Zehner, Ensign.

THREE-YEAR MEN
First Regiment, Infantry, Volunteers
Company B (Company B, National Guard): Sylvester Van Sickell, Captain (resigned July 31, 1862) ; William H. Tantum, Captain (vice Van Sickell, resigned); William Brant, W., Captain (vice Tantum, promoted).

Fourth Regiment, Infantry, Volunteers Company B (Wilson Zouaves) : William Sedden, Captain (deserted March 24, 1862) ; Robert S. Johnston, Captain (vice Sedden, deserted) ; Horatio S. Howell, Captain (vice Johnston, mustered out). Company C (Stevens Guards) : Heathcote F. Disbrow, Captain (resigned December 20, 1861) ; Barzilla Ridgway, Captain (vice Disbrow, resigned) ; Howard King, Captain (vice Ridgway, promoted); Caleb M. Wright, Captain (vice King, mustered out). Company D (Jersey Blues) : Samuel Mulford, Captain (promoted Major) ; Baldwin Hufty, Captain (vice Mulford, promoted) ; John J. Letchworth, Captain (vice Hufty, promoted).

Fifth Regiment, Infantry, Volunteers Company E (Lewis Guards) : Robert S. Gould, Captain (resigned April 18, 1863) ; Edward P. Berry, Captain (vice Gould, resigned. Captain Berry died of wounds received in action at Gettysburg.)

Sixth Regiment, Infantry, Volunteers Company B (Livingston Guards) : Charles Ewing, Captain (promoted January 8, 1863) ; Joseph R. West, Captain (vice Ewing, promoted).

Eleventh Regiment, Infantry, Volunteers Company C (Belleville Guards) : John J. Willis, Captain (resigned March 6, 1863) ; Andrew H. Ackerman, Captain (vice Willis, resigned. Killed at Gettysburg July 3, 1863) ; Edward T. Kennedy, Captain (vice Ackerman, killed in action) ; George Savidge, Captain (vice Kennedy, resigned).

Fourteenth Regiment, Infantry, Volunteers Company B (Union Light Infantry) : Benjamin F. Craig, Captain; Jarvis Wanser, Captain (vice Craig, dismissed).

VOLUNTEER ORGANIZATIONS

Of the forty-five volunteer military organizations of all arms of the service raised in New Jersey during the progress of the Civil War of 1861-65, nineteen regiments and twelve companies of infantry, three regiments of cavalry and four batteries of the First Regiment of Artillery were mobilized and mustered into Federal service in the camps in, or adjacent to Trenton as shown on this statement:
First Regiment, Infantry, New Jersey Volunteer Militia, afterwards numbered as the Seventeenth Infantry. Mustered in at Trenton April 30, 1861, for three-months service.
Second Regiment, Infantry, New Jersey Volunteer Militia, afterwards numbered as the Eighteenth Infantry. Mustered in at Trenton May 1, 1861, for three-months service.
Third Regiment, Infantry, New Jersey Volunteer Militia, afterwards numbered as the Nineteenth Infantry. Mustered in at Trenton, April 27, 1861, for three-months service.
Fourth Regiment, Infantry, New Jersey Volunteer Militia, afterwards given the designation of the Twentieth Infantry. Mustered in at Trenton, April 27, 1861, for three-months service.
First Regiment, Infantry, Volunteers. Mustered in at Camp Olden, Trenton, May 21, 1861, for three years.
Second Regiment, Infantry, Volunteers. Mustered in at Camp Olden, Trenton, May 26, 1861, for three years.
Third Regiment, Infantry, Volunteers. Mustered in at Camp Olden, Trenton, June 4, 1861, for three years.
Fourth Regiment, Infantry, Volunteers. Mustered in at Camp Olden, Trenton, August 19, 1861, for three years.
Fifth Regiment, Infantry, Volunteers. Mustered in at Camp Olden, Trenton, August 22, 1861, for three years.
Sixth Regiment, Infantry, Volunteers. Mustered in at Camp Olden, Trenton, August 19, 1861, for three years.
Seventh Regiment, Infantry, Volunteers. Mustered in at Camp Olden, Trenton, September 3, 1861, for three years.
Eighth Regiment, Infantry, Volunteers. Mustered in at Camp Olden, Trenton, .September 14, 1861, for three years.
Ninth Regiment, Infantry, Volunteers. Mustered in at Camp Olden, Trenton, September 13 to October 14, 1861, for three years.
Eleventh Regiment, Infantry, Volunteers. Mustered in at Camp Perrine, Trenton, August 18, 1862, for three years.
Sixteenth Regiment (First Regiment Cavalry). Headquarters at Camp Halsted, Trenton. Seventeenth Regiment, Infantry. See First Regiment, Volunteer Militia - three-months men. Eighteenth Regiment, Infantry. See Second Regiment, Volunteer Militia - three-months men. Nineteenth Regiment, Infantry. See Third Regiment, Volunteer Militia - three-months men. Twentieth Regiment, Infantry. See Fourth Regiment, Volunteer Militia - three-months men.

THE DRAFT

On the fourth of August, 1862, the President ordered that a draft, the first, of three hundred thousand militia be immediately called into the service of the United States, to serve for nine months unless sooner discharged, regulations for the draft to be established by the Secretary of War. A subsequent order dated August 19 directed that "The draft be made on Wednesday the third of September, 1862, between the hours of 9 o'clock a.m. and 5 o'clock p.m. and continued from day to day between the same hours until completed."
A general desire was manifested by our citizens to fill New Jersey's quota (10,478) by voluntary enlistment, and thus avoid the draft; but the time was so short that the returns of draft commissioners could not be obtained before the date fixed by the draft, and so the people were forced to a draft, whereas, if time had been given, New Jersey could have raised the quota by voluntary enlistment. More time was requested of the War Department but it was denied, and it seemed to be a time for state officials to take responsibility upon themselves and act with promptness and energy, for the people had a right to know the number of men they were required to raise, in time to use all endeavor to raise the number without a draft.
It was announced that volunteers in lieu of drafted men would be received up to the first day of September, and that positively the draft would take place at the appointed time if the quota should not be filled by voluntary enlistments by that date.
The result was gratifying beyond all expectation. For several days previous to the time fixed for the draft men poured into Camp Perrine at Trenton, designated as Draft Rendezvous No. 1, under command of Brigadier General N. Norris Halsted, and by the evening of September 2, 1862, our quota was filled by voluntary enlistments, and, practically, a draft at that time was avoided. Subsequently and before the regiments left the State a few men were drafted, one of the commissioners deeming it his duty to resort to draft because the quota of his County was not quite full, notwithstanding the excess of volunteers over the quota of the whole State.
The organizations mustered in at Trenton under this call were the following:
Twenty-first Regiment, Infantry, Volunteers. Mustered in at Camp Perrine, September 15, 1862, for nine months.
Twenty-second Regiment, Infantry, Volunteers. Mustered in at Camp Perrine, September 22, 1862, for nine months.
Twenty-fifth Regiment, Infantry, Volunteers. Five companies of this regiment mustered in at Camp Perrine, September 18, 1862, for nine months.
Thirty-second Regiment (Second Cavalry). Mustered in at Camp Perrine, August and September 1863, for three years or the war.
Thirty-fourth Regiment, Infantry, Volunteers. Field and staff and seven companies of this regiment mustered in at Camp Parker, October 6 to November 9, 1863, for three years.
Thirty-sixth Regiment (Third Cavalry). Mustered in at Camp Bayard, January and February 1864 for three years.
Thirty-seventh Regiment, Infantry, Volunteers. Mustered in at Trenton, June 23, 1864, for one hundred days.
Thirty-eighth Regiment, Infantry, Volunteers. Mustered in at Camp Bayard, September 1864, for one year.
Fortieth Regiment, Infantry, Volunteers. Mustered in at Camp Perrine for one, two, or three years, October 24, 1864, to March 10, 1865.
First Regiment, Artillery, Volunteers:
Battery B. Mustered in at Camp Olden, September 3, 1861, for three years.
Battery C. Mustered in at Camp Perrine, September 11, 1863, for three years.
Battery D. Mustered in at Camp Perrine, September 16, 1863, for three years.
Battery E. Mustered in at Camp Perrine, September 8, 1863, for three years.

VOLUNTEERS FROM TRENTON

The population of Trenton in April 1861, based on the census of 1860, was 17,221, or in round figures in April 1861, 18,000. The actual number of males between the ages of 18 and 45 cannot be definitely ascertained, but according to the reports of the Adjutant General of New Jersey, of the 98,886 men in the State available for military duty, 88,305 were sent to the field. From Trenton there were, based on a fair estimate of the militia strength of the city, approximately two thousand volunteers in New Jersey regiments and volunteer organizations of neighboring states.

CITIZENS' RELIEF ASSOCIATIONS

On April 18, 1861, a public meeting was held in Temperance Hall at the southeast corner of Greene (later Broad) and Front Streets for the purpose of devising plans for the care and support of families of volunteers enlisting for the war and the appointment of committees to solicit subscriptions from the citizens of Trenton for that purpose. The appeal met with a generous response. The Trenton Bank and the Mechanic's Bank also made liberal contributions to the fund in addition to the large loans tendered to Governor Olden towards the expenses of fitting out the volunteer organizations. Sub-committees were also appointed to attend to the proper distribution of money and supplies to the families of soldiers.
The women of the First Presbyterian Church and of other churches formed societies for the purpose of furnishing lint, bandages, clothing and other supplies of a miscellaneous nature required by soldiers in the field. These associations continued their work during the entire period of the war for our troops in the field.
In the spring of 1865 an Act was passed by the Legislature to incorporate a Soldiers' Children's Home and named for the management thereof a number of prominent women of the State. The object of this Act was to provide for the support and education of the destitute children of any soldier, living or dead, who may have been engaged in the conflict for the preservation of the Union. This institution was established originally in Jersey City but after an appropriation for its support was made it was removed to Trenton, locating at Millham. Mrs. William L. Dayton was chosen president and Mrs. J. S. Davenport and Mrs. Augustus G. Richey vice-presidents; Miss Mary A. Hall, treasurer, and Miss Mary F. Johnston, secretary, with a board of directors residing in Jersey City and Trenton. The location at Millham being at a considerable distance from Trenton, a house at 92 Warren Street was purchased and used until the completion in 1867 of the new building at Hamilton and Chestnut Avenues to be used for the purposes named in the Act for the next ten years. A full description of this building is given in Raum's History of Trenton. From the opening until its close in 1877, some three hundred children, boys and girls, were cared for and educated at this institution until they arrived at an age when they were qualified for employment for self-support. Upon the close of the institution the care of the buildings was turned over to the Quartermaster General who retained supervision until its conversion into a State institution for the deaf and dumb, for which purpose it was used until the construction of the present buildings at Trenton Junction.

MISCELLANY

Much activity among our merchants in Trenton during the Civil War was occasioned by the urgent need of the national and state governments for military supplies of every description. Our large industrial plants were also very busy. One of the most important of these plants was that of the New Jersey Arms and Ordnance Company, manufacturing muskets and heavy ordnance. The Trenton Iron Company, later known as the New Jersey Steel and Iron Company, rendered great service to the War Department in the manufacture of iron of a quality suitable for gun barrels, etc. Charles Hewitt, at the request of the Secretary of War, went to England and bought up a large quantity of such suitable iron and studied the conditions of its manufacture. Mr. Hewitt, with the information thus gained, succeeded in manufacturing an excellent quality of iron and rolled gun barrels therefrom which passed a rigid inspection by Major Dyer, U.S.A., superintendent of the Springfield Armory. All barrels made under Mr. Hewitt's formula were stamped "Trenton" and were known as the "Trenton-Springfield Rifle."
The New Jersey Arms and Ordnance Company established a proving ground near Trenton along the Delaware and Raritan Canal, near Lock No. 3, better known later as Mitchell's Lock, for the testing of the Dahlgren guns and other ordnance manufactured for the government under the supervision of the Secretary of War. This proving ground was carefully constructed for practice with heavy ordnance, and to guard against the possibility of accidents was under rigid surveillance during testing periods.
General Lewis Perrine, Quartermaster General of New Jersey, contracted with the New Jersey Arms and Ordnance Company for muskets and with Emerson & Silvers of Trenton for swords and scabbards for non-commissioned officers and for sabers for the cavalry and artillery. Among local merchants furnishing various military stores were Joseph McPherson, artillery harness, saddles and bridles; John B. Anderson, forage caps and army hats; Jonathan Steward and others, flannel shirts; Joseph Rice and Charles H. McChesney, drawers; Daniel and William Temple, boots and shoes; Henderson G. Scudder and others, army blankets.
Upton and Miller, Brearley, Cogill & Company and other local dealers furnished large quantities of small ordnance, commissary and quartermaster stores too numerous to mention in detail.

"WHEN JOHNNIE COMES MARCHING HOME"

V. Trenton Officers in the Civil War and Roster of Company A, National Guard

VOLUNTEER SURGEONS FROM TRENTON

During the terrible conflicts in the Wilderness, and before Petersburg and Richmond, the following-named gentlemen, under the call of the Surgeon General, U.S. Army, for volunteer surgeons and nurses, responded to treat the wounded taken in large numbers to Fredericksburg, Md.: Dr. Thomas. J. Corson; Dr. John Woolverton; and Dr. Charles Hodge, Jr.
These doctors served at periods in field hospitals at various points until the end of hostilities at Appomattox.

COMPANY A, NATIONAL GUARD, TRENTON

This company was organized at a meeting called for the purpose at the American House, November 30, 1860, with Robert C. Belleville, chairman, and S. Meredith Dickinson, secretary. At a subsequent meeting William R. Murphy was elected Captain, Robert C. Belleville First Lieutenant, and Joseph Ott, Second Lieutenant. The company was rapidly recruited to the required strength and on April 16, 1861, reported for active duty under the following order:

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

OFFICE OF THE ADJUTANT GENERAL

Adjutant General

In his report for 1861 the Quartermaster General said

The young gentlemen composing this company performed all the duties of a military garrison, and, at the same time, rendered important service, assisting in the work of arming and equipping the troops for the field for the period of three months service from the 16th of April to the 16th of July, in which time seven regiments, four of militia and three of volunteers, were fully armed and equipped. This company served also during the draft riots at Perth Amboy in November 1863.

VI. The Spanish-American War

THE NATIONAL GUARD VOLUNTEER REGIMENTS

Of the four regiments of National Guard infantry mobilized in 1898 at Camp Voorhees, Sea Girt, and of the two battalions of the naval reserve, there were but three companies of infantry and one division of the Battalion of the West, Naval Reserves, volunteering from Trenton in the War with Spain.
The infantry companies were attached to the Fourth Regiment, New Jersey National Guard Volunteer Infantry, commanded by Colonel Robert G. Smith and later by Colonel Quincy O. M. Gillmore, U.S.A.
The following-named officers of the field and staff were from Trenton: Thomas S. Chambers, Major; Gouverneur V. Packer, Battalion Adjutant; Frederick Gilkyson, Battalion Adjutant; Harry O. Valentine, Quartermaster.
The companies were:
Company A: Volunteers from Company A, Seventh Regiment, National Guard of New Jersey; Captain, Richard R. Whitehead; First Lieutenant, Jacob M. Coward; Second Lieutenant, John W. Roberts.
Company G: Volunteers from Company D, Seventh Regiment, National Guard of New Jersey; Captain, Bernard Rogers; First Lieutenant, John M. Rogers; Second Lieutenant, Joseph A. Herron.
Company L: Made up from volunteers from the Trenton Companies of the Seventh Regiment, National Guard of New Jersey, and others unattached to any military organization; Captain, Clayton J. Bailey; First Lieutenant, William E. Pedrick; Second Lieutenant, Fred F. C. Woodward. William H. Earley served as Second Lieutenant in Company H, Fourth Regiment, New Jersey Volunteer Infantry, and later as First Lieutenant, Company K, of the same organization.
The Fourth Regiment was mobilized at Camp Voorhees, Sea Girt, sent first to Camp Meade, Middletown, Pa., and thence to Camp Wetherill, S.C., where it remained until its muster-out at the close of the war, without any other active service than drill and general camp duty. None of the New Jersey military organizations were sent to Cuba.

THE NAVAL RESERVE

The First Divisions of the Battalion of the West which contained the members of that organization from Trenton were detailed to the U.S. S. Resolute, May 13,1898, and served with the fleet before Santiago de Cuba, witnessing and participating in the action which resulted in the destruction of the Spanish fleet under the brave but unfortunate Admiral Cevera, arriving at the scene of surrender before the Cristoval Colon struck her flag. The Resolute received the prisoners from the Colon comprising nineteen officers and four hundred and ninety-five men and proceeded to Guantanamo Bay, transferring the prisoners to the U.S.S. St. Paul and the U.S.S. Harvard. On the twelfth of August the Resolute was sent to bombard Manzanillo. The bombardment was opened but on the morning of the thirteenth news was received of the signing of the protocol of peace, and hostilities ended. The Naval Reserve of New Jersey made a fine record in the Spanish-American War as shown by the following letter from Commander Eaton, U.S.N., to the Governor of New Jersey:

U.S.S. RESOLUTE

HIS EXCELLENCY, THE GOVERNOR OF THE STATE of NEW JERSEY:

SIR.-Today, after a service lasting for five months, the members of the West Battalion, New Jersey Naval Reserves, are detached from this ship and ordered north for honorable discharge.

I cannot allow them to leave the Resolute without expressing to you, and through you, to the State which they have honored, my sense of the patriotism, fidelity and bravery these Reserves have shown during the late war. Not only in the battles off Santiago on July 3, and off Manzanillo on August 12, when under fire from the enemy they exhibited coolness, courage and enthusiasm, but also in the much harder, but less glorious work at Guantanamo and Santiago they have shown the qualities which command respect and enforce confidence.

I had my doubts when they joined the Resolute - doubts based upon the inexperience of the Reserves, but I assure your Excellency, that after the first month there have been no doubts, and I am most sincerely sorry to have them go. They have shown that they possess all the qualities, steadfastness, courage, endurance and reliability, which render a man valuable to his country in time of need. It will be always a boast of my Naval life that the somewhat proud record, which the Resolute has made for herself in the war now past, was due mainly to the efficient and brave service rendered by the men of your State.

I regret that the exigencies of the situation prevent my saying in person, what I have so lamely put on paper, but I can assure you that your State may well feel proud of the record earned by the brave men of the West Battalion, who are but now laying down their arms, and quitting the service which they have honored and most ably sustained. I have the honor to be, your Excellency,

Most respectfully yours,

Except in military circles there was but little interest manifested in Trenton during the period of the war with Spain.

© 1929, TRENTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY