New Jersey in the Civil War

United States   U.S. Civil War    New Jersey    New Jersey Military    New Jersey in the Civil War



Introduction
New Jersey sent over 88,000 soldiers to the Union armed forces, as part of 52 regiments. More than a fourth were part of the Army of the Potomac. Generally soldiers from New Jersey fought in eastern areas of the war. About 6,300 of these soldiers died during the war.

About 2,100 men to other states as follows:

New Jersey Military Units
Most units were numbered, however, some were named. See the table below for lists of the regiments, battalions, batteries, and other units.

The information in the lists of New Jersey Military Units comes from the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors web site. That web site also can be searched by the name of a soldier.

New Jersey Units by Number or by Name Union Units 1st-9th 10th-45th A to Z New Jersey Units by Type of Unit Union Units Infantry Cavalry Artillery Other

Service and Pension Records
The Family History Library has microfilm copies of the federal indexes to service and pension records of Union Army soldiers. The actual service and pension records have not been filmed and are available only at the National Archives.

Important published rosters from the adjutant general's office are:


 * Stryker, William S., Compiler. Record of Officers and Men of New Jersey in the Civil War, 1861-1865. Two Volumes. Trenton, New Jersey: John L. Murphy, 1876. (Family History Library.)
 * New Jersey Adjutant General. Register of the Commissioned Officers and Privates of the New Jersey Volunteers in Service of the United States. Three Volumes. Jersey City, New Jersey: John H. Lyon, 1863-1865. (Family History Library .) The Family History Library has only the first volume.
 * New Jersey Adjutant General. Annual Report of the Adjutant-General of the State of New Jersey for . . . 1861-1865. Four Volumes in one. Trenton, New Jersey, 1862-1865. (Not available at the Family History Library.)

Pension Records
Civil War Pension Index Cards - An of veterans who served in the US Army between 1861-1917 is available on FamilySearch. Each card gives the soldier’s name, application and certificate numbers, state of enlistment, and might include rank and death information. The majority of the records are of Civil War veterans, but the collection also includes records for veterans of the Spanish-American War, the Philippine Insurrection, the Indian Wars, and World War I. For more information see Union Pension Records.

For a helpful reference, see:


 * Sinclair, Donald A. A Bibliography, the Civil War and New Jersey. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Friends of the Rutgers University Library, 1968. (Family History Library .)

Also see Civil War Record Books below.

Service Records
The N.J. Secretary of State's website has digitized service records for 286 of New Jersey's black soldiers in the Civil War, 1862-1870s available online in their United States Colored Troops - Service Files, ca. 1862-1870s collection.

The Compiled Service Records for Union soldiers who served in organizations from the state of New Jersey have not been microfilmed and are only available from the National Archives. For more information on service records see Union Service Records.

1890 Census Veterans Schedules
1890 Census Veterans Schedules - The "Special Schedules of the Eleventh Census (1890) Enumerating Union Veterans and Widows of Union Veterans of the Civil War" (NARA M123) are available online for the state of New Jersey. The schedules list Union veterans and their widows living in New Jersey in 1890. For more information on the 1890 Veterans Schedules see Union Census Records.

Photographs
The N.J. Secretary of State's website has 401 portraits of New Jersey Civil War soldiers, mostly officers, from 1861-1890s. The photographs are available online in the Civil War Cartes de Visite collection (hyperlink updated 28 Aug 2013).

Civil War Record Books
The Family History Library has microfilm copies of the first 290 volumes of pension claims, veterans' correspondence files, and militia enrollments from the office of the adjutant general. Volumes 291-829, which contain mostly muster rolls and discharges, were not microfilmed and are available only at the state archives.

Burial Records
The New Jersey Historical Society has an 11,000-card Index to Civil War Soldiers' Graves in New Jersey.


 * Jackson, Ronald Vern. Civil War Veterans Listed in the 1890 Census. New Jersey 1890. Salt Lake City, Utah: Accelerated Indexing Systems, 1990. (Family History Library book .) This contains the names of Civil War veterans and their widows for the special census taken along with the Federal 1890 census (Family History Library ). The soldier's rank, company, regiment, date of enlistment, date of discharge, length of service, P. O. address and often street address, disability incurred, and remarks such as death date and place are given. If the soldier died before the 1890 census, his name is given with the name of the widow.
 * New Jersey USCT Burials.
 * Pompey, Sherman Lee. New Jersey Union Soldiers Buried at Mill Springs National Cemetery, Pulaski County, Kentucky. Eugene, Oregon : Western Oregon Genealogical Research Library, 1978. Available at Library of Congress.

New Jersey State Archives
The state archives has:


 * Alphabetical Roll of New Jersey Volunteers in the Civil War. (Family History Library ; 579864 [I- P]; 579865 [Q-W]]; names W-Z were not filmed.)
 * Civil War Pension Claims, New Jersey Soldiers, Alphabetical. (Family History Library .) This is a list of invalid soldiers or their widows who applied for pensions from 1880-87.
 * New Jersey Civil War Records, Books 1-829. Trenton, New Jersey: State Library of Archives and History, 1969. (On 121 Family History Library films starting with .) Film 578155 has an inventory of the contents of the books.

Books 1-106 contain pension claims to the year 1907. They are in alphabetical order.

Books 107-108 contain pension claims after 1917.

Books 109-152 contain correspondence with the New Jersey Adjutant General's office.

Books 153-200 contain lists of all men ages 18-45. They are listed by county and township.

Grand Army of the Republic (GAR)
Grand Army of the Republic founded in 1866 - 1956, was the largest veteran’s organization in the country after the Civil War. It was a fraternal organization members were veterans of the Union Army, US Navy, Marines and Revenue Cutler Service who served in the American Civil War. The group supported voting rights for black veterans, and lobbied the U.S. Congress to establish veterans' pensions. In 1890 the membership was 490,000.

In 1888 there were 109 posts and 7,296 members in the state of New Jersey

GAR Posts in the State of New Jersey

The FamilySearch Catalog lists records of the New Jersey Grand Army of the Rebuplic.

Other Sources

 * Bilby,Joseph G. and Goble, William C. Remember You are Jerseymen: A Military History of New Jersey's Troops in the Civil War. Hightstown,New Jersey: Longstreet House, c1998 FHL book 974.9M2bjWorldCat


 * Ferguson, Joseph. Life-struggles in rebel prisons: a record of the sufferings, escapes, adventures and starvation of the Union prisoners. (Washington [District of Columbia]: Library of Congress, Photo duplication Service, 1988), and (Bethesda, Maryland: University Publications of America, c1992),.


 * New Jersey cavalry, 1861-1865. Clothing books. (Salt Lake City, Utah : Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1973), and  and Consolidated morning report book. and

Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War
With the death of the last member of the Grand Army of the Republic the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War was formed.