1st New Jersey Regiment

Last updated
1st New Jersey Regiment
Active1744–1783
CountryRed Ensign of Great Britain (1707-1800, square canton).svg New Jersey
Flag of the United States (1777-1795).svg  United States
BranchRed Ensign of Great Britain (1707-1800, square canton).svg New Jersey Provincial Forces
Gadsden flag.svg Continental Army
Type Regiment
Role Infantry
Part of New Jersey Line
Nickname(s)Jersey Blues
Engagements Battle of Valcour Island
Battle of Brandywine
Battle of Germantown
Battle of Monmouth
Sullivan Expedition
Battle of Springfield
Battle of Yorktown
Commanders
Notable
commanders
Col. William Alexander (1775–1776)
Col. William Winds (1776–1777)
Col. Silas Newcomb (1777)
Col. Matthias Ogden (1777–1783)

The 1st New Jersey Regiment was the first organized militia regiment in New Jersey, formed in 1673 in Piscataway "to repel foreign Indians who come down from upper Pennsylvania and western New York (in the summer) to our shores and fill (themselves) with fishes and clams and on the way back make a general nuisance of themselves by burning hay stacks, corn fodder and even barns." [1] The first commander and founder of the regiment was Captain Francis Drake (1615-1687) who served from 1673 to 1685. All of New Jersey's regular organized military forces trace their lineage to this first provincial militia unit.

Contents

The regiment's allegiance was to the British Crown until 1775, when the regiment was raised for service in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.

"Jersey Blues"

Although the unit had existed long beforehand, it was not until the mid-eighteenth century that the term "Jersey Blues" came into popular usage. The term "Jersey Blues" derives from the uniform adopted by the New Jersey provincial legislature for its troops, which were assigned to service under the New Jersey Provincial Forces. The coats of these Jersey units were blue with red lapels and cuffs. [2] The men also wore blue breeches or leggings and red waistcoats. (In some cases, sturdier buckskin or leather breeches were authorized.) The term "Jersey Blues" continued to be used well into the early nineteenth century in reference to the state's military units. The regiments of the Jersey Line during the American Revolution and those of the New Jersey Volunteers, raised for Federal service during the Civil War, adopted the term. It was actually even used by New Jersey's National Guard unit after WWII – 50th Armored Division; as well as in 2008 when the N. J. Guard was sent to Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom – 50th Infantry Brigade Combat Team.

Service to the crown

King George's War

In 1744, during King George's War (1744–1748) the New Jersey legislature appropriated money and raised 500 volunteers to assist New York in capturing the French fort at Crown Point. Bad food, ill discipline and a mutiny resulted in the abandonment of the expedition, however. [3]

The French and Indian War

During the French and Indian War (1755–1763) New Jersey's participation was remarkable, and "Colonial Tribulations" (2007) documents the service of the New Jersey Regiment (the "Jersey Blues") throughout that period. Just as in the previous colonial wars their existence began with the New Jersey Assembly ordering the muster of 500 men to respond to the larger war looming on the New York frontier. Indian raids by tribes allied with the French along the colony's northwest border in the summer of 1755 also prompted the raising of a different unit known as the New Jersey Frontier Guard (not to be confused with the regular provincial or "Blues" regiment). The Frontier Guard responded to localized Indian incursions, as well as garrisoned the forts along the Delaware River.

Contrastingly, in 1755 the entire contingent of 500 men known as the Jersey Blues was stationed at the lightly fortified trading village of Oswego, New York, where they constructed the first documented military hospital. They also assisted with improving the fortifications in order to support the British offensive against French Fort Niagara which was being delayed until 1756. During the following year, only a part of the regiment had returned to the 'three' forts on Lake Ontario, and they were engaged in and bore the suffering of several skirmishes. However, in August the attack on their outpost by French commander the Marquis de Montcalm resulted in many Jerseymen becoming prisoners of war who experienced many documented tribulations. At least one NJ Indian is documented among the ranks.

By 1757, the Jersey Blues were re-mustered and assigned to Fort William Henry where they comprised one-third of its garrison. In July about 150 were taken as POWs while another 50 died during the Battle of Sabbath Day Point on the northern part of Lake George. The 100 men who escaped that day returned to William Henry to join the 200 others who remained in garrison. A short few weeks later those 300 were again attacked by Montcalm which was immortalized in the book and movie "The Last of the Mohicans". Most in the general public have no idea that the Jersey troops were present or what they experienced. Importantly, the unit continued to include several Native Americans from the province who experienced harsh consequences following the fort's capitulation.

In 1758, the unit was again re-mustered and engaged in the attack of French Fort Carillon, where Montcalm was able to repel a massive British force. Several Jersey Blues were killed in action. A part of the unit was later engaged in the successful taking of the strategic French outpost, Fort Frontenac, on Lake Ontario. [4]

By 1759, they were again on the New York frontier, when a small party was ambushed by Indians allied with the French near Lake George of July 2, 1759. "16 of the Jersey Blues were sent without the camp to gather a little brush for the General's Baker, but were not an hour gone before they were surprised in sight of the camp by a party of the enemy, consisting of about 240, who killed and scalped six, wounded two, took four prisoners, and only four of the whole party escaped. They shewed themselves plainly to the whole Army after they got the scalps, gave a hollow, and then made off to their Battoes, which were not more than two miles from the Head of the Lake. A large party was ordered out after them, but in vain. They butchered our people in a most shocking manner, by cutting pieces of flesh out of their necks, thighs and legs" – New York Mercury

The New Jersey Historical Society stated that in 1760 the regiment was part of the final campaign against the French in Canada. Remarkably, one of the soldiers (a New Jersey Native American) who was taken as a POW at Fort William Henry in 1757 was reunited with the unit and returned home with them.

By 1761, existing payroll accounts verify that the unit was indeed mustered, and by 1762 they had formed a part of the expedition against Havana, Cuba. There is also oral tradition that one of the cannons at the Old Barracks in Trenton, New Jersey was a spoil of war for the Jersey Blues. Payroll accounts also verify that the unit remained activated through 1765. The Old Barracks Museum put forth a nice exhibit about the French and Indian which includes rare artifacts of the Blues.

The American Revolution

The smoker, the drummer of the Jersey Blues by Theophile Lybaert Theopile Lybaert - The smoker, the drummer of the Jersey Blues.jpg
The smoker, the drummer of the Jersey Blues by Théophile Lybaert

The 1st New Jersey Regiment, which was known as part of the famed "Jersey Blues", was authorized on October 9, 1775, by the Continental Congress to be raised for service with the Continental Army under the command of Colonel William Alexander, better known as Lord Stirling for his (unsuccessful) claims to that Scottish title. It was also known as "First or Eastern Battalion of Foot of New Jersey Troops" while the Second New Jersey, authorized at the same time, was raised in the western counties of provincial New Jersey. Eight companies of the 1st New Jersey were raised in Essex, Middlesex, Morris, Somerset, Monmouth, and Bergen counties. One of the first activities of the newly formed unit was subduing and capturing Tories on Long Island. After Stirling was elevated to the rank of general, command of the 1st New Jersey was given to Colonel William Winds. Winds suffered humiliation after pressing for the regiment to leave Fort Ticonderoga in November 1776 after enlistments for the Jerseymen expired.

When the regiment was reorganized in January 1777 as the 1st New Jersey Regiment, Continental Line, command was first offered to Silas Newcomb, but he declined. Matthias Ogden, who had previously served as major and lieutenant colonel of the 1st NJ Battalion of 1775–1776, became regimental commander with the rank of colonel, a position he held virtually until the end of the war.

The regiment saw action at the Battle of Valcour Island, Battle of Brandywine, Battle of Germantown, Battle of Monmouth, Sullivan Expedition, Battle of Springfield and the Battle of Yorktown. Other service included Winter Cantonment at Valley Forge (1776–1777), Battle of Short Hills (1777), Winter Cantonments at Morristown/Pompton Plains. The regiment was disbanded on November 3, 1783, at New Windsor, New York. [5]

Famous members

Other figures associated with the Jersey Blues during the colonial period include: Col. John Parker resumed command during Schuyler's captivity – 1757. He was followed by John Johnston, another commander of the New Jersey Regiment during the French and Indian War; William "Scotch Willie" Maxwell, who was a lieutenant in the New Jersey Regiment during the colonial wars, a commissary in the 1760s, and later served as first colonel of the 2nd New Jersey Regiment (Continental Line) and general commanding the New Jersey Line during the Revolutionary War.

See also

Related Research Articles

Ebenezer Learned was a brigadier general in the American Continental Army during the Revolutionary War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Ticonderoga (1759)</span> Battle during the French and Indian War

The Battle of Ticonderoga was a minor confrontation at Fort Carillon on July 26 and 27, 1759, during the French and Indian War. A British military force of more than 11,000 men under the command of General Sir Jeffery Amherst moved artillery to high ground overlooking the fort, which was defended by a garrison of 400 Frenchmen under the command of Brigadier General François-Charles de Bourlamaque.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siege of Fort William Henry</span> Siege during the Seven Years War

The siege of Fort William Henry was conducted by a French and Indian force led by Louis-Joseph de Montcalm against the British-held Fort William Henry. This fort, located at the southern end of Lake George, on the frontier between the British Province of New York and the French Province of Canada, was garrisoned by a poorly supported force of British regulars and provincial militia led by Lieutenant Colonel George Monro.

John Haslet was an American Presbyterian clergyman and soldier from Milford, in Kent County, Delaware. He was a veteran of the French and Indian War and an officer of the Continental Army in the American Revolution, serving as the first Colonel of the 1st Delaware Regiment. He was killed in action at the Battle of Princeton.

The 198th Signal Battalion is an Expeditionary Signal Battalion in the Delaware Army National Guard. Delaware is known as the "First State," as referenced in their motto "First Regiment of First State." The unit specializes in command post node communications, providing broadband satellite voice and data connections for brigade sized battlefield elements. The unit includes Headquarters, Headquarters Company located in Wilmington, DE; A Company in Georgetown, DE; B Company in Hodges, SC; and C Company in Wilmington, DE. It is one of several National Guard units with colonial roots and campaign credit for the War of 1812.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1st Virginia Regiment</span> Military unit

The 1st Virginia Regiment was an infantry regiment of the Virginia Line that served with the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.

The New Hampshire Provincial Regiment was a provincial military regiment made up of men from the New Hampshire Militia during the French and Indian War for service with the British Army in North America. It was first formed in 1754 with the start of hostilities with France.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Isaac Wyman</span>

Isaac Wyman (1724–1792) was born January 18, 1724, in Woburn, Massachusetts, to Joshua Wyman and his wife Mary Pollard. In 1747 he married Sarah Wells of Franklin, Massachusetts. They had nine children altogether.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Jersey Line</span>

The New Jersey Line was a formation within the Continental Army in the American War of Independence. A "New Jersey Line" was the quota of numbered infantry regiments that the Congress of the Confederacy assigned to New Jersey at various times.

William Maxwell was an Irish-born brigadier general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virginia Regiment</span> Military unit

The Virginia Regiment was an infantry unit of the Virginia Provincial Forces raised in 1754 by the Virginia General Assembly and Governor Robert Dinwiddie for service in the French and Indian War. The sole provincial unit raised by the British colony of Virginia during the conflict, it initially consisted of 300 men under the command of Colonel George Washington and fought in the battles of Jumonville Glen and Fort Necessity. After the Virginia Regiment's defeat at Fort Necessity, the General Assembly voted to double the size of the unit, which participated in the failed Braddock Expedition to capture Fort Duquesne from the French.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maryland and Virginia Rifle Regiment</span> American Revolutionary War military unit

The Maryland and Virginia Rifle Regiment, most commonly known as Rawlings' Regiment in period documents, was organized in June 1776 as a specialized light infantry unit of riflemen in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. The American rifle units complemented the predominant, musket-equipped, line infantry forces of the war with their long-range marksmanship capability and were typically deployed with the line infantry as forward skirmishers and flanking elements. Scouting, escort, and outpost duties were also routine. The rifle units' battle formation was not nearly as structured as that of the line infantry units, which employed short-range massed firing in ordered linear formations. The riflemen could therefore respond with more adaptability to changing battle conditions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Queen's Rangers</span> Military unit

The Queen's Rangers, also known as the Queen's American Rangers, and later Simcoe's Rangers, were a Loyalist military unit of the American Revolutionary War that specialized in cavalry tactics, close combat, irregular warfare, maneuver warfare, raiding, reconnaissance, screening, and tracking. Formed in 1776, they were named for Queen Charlotte. The Queen's Rangers was a light corps in the tradition of British rangers during the Seven Years' War, operating on the flanks and in advance of Crown forces, manning outposts, conducting patrol for screening, and carrying out raiding and reconnaissance operations.

A flying camp was a military formation employed by the Continental Army in the second half of 1776, during the American Revolutionary War.

The history of the United States Army began in 1775, as part of the United States Armed Forces. The Army's main responsibility has been in fighting land battles and military occupation. The Corps of Engineers also has a major role in controlling rivers inside the United States. The Continental Army was founded in response to a need for professional soldiers in the American Revolutionary War to fight the invading British Army. Until the 1940s, the Army was relatively small in peacetime. In 1947, the Air Force became completely independent of the Army Air Forces. The Army was under the control of the War Department until 1947, and since then the Defense Department. The U.S. Army fought the Indian Wars of the 1790s, the War of 1812 (1812–15), Mexican–American War (1846–48), American Civil War (1861–65), American Indian Wars, Spanish–American War (1898), World War I (1917–18), World War II (1941–45), Korean War (1950–53) and Vietnam War (1965–71). Following the Cold War's end in 1991, Army has focused primarily on Western Asia, and also took part in the 1991 Gulf War and war in Iraq, and the war in Afghanistan.

Twenty-four current units of the Army National Guard perpetuate the lineages of militia units mustered into federal service during the War of 1812. Militia units from nine states that were part of the Union by the end of the War of 1812, plus the District of Columbia, are the predecessors of eighteen units that currently exist in the Army National Guard. Two of the four units derived from Virginia militias are in the West Virginia National Guard; at the time of the War of 1812, West Virginia was still part of Virginia. Only two current units, the 155th Infantry, a component of the Mississippi National Guard derived from militia units organized in the Mississippi Territory and the 130th Infantry, a component of the Illinois National Guard derived from militia units formed in the Illinois Territory, are from states or territories west of the Appalachians. Unfortunately, no militia units from the states of Kentucky, Louisiana, Ohio or Tennessee, or from the Indiana, Michigan, Missouri or Louisiana Territories, where militia units played a major role in the fighting, have survived as units in the modern Army National Guard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Provincial troops in the French and Indian Wars</span>

Provincial troops were military units raised by colonial governors and legislatures in British North America for extended operations during the French and Indian Wars. The provincial troops differed from the militia, in that they were a full-time military organization conducting extended operations. They differed from the regular British Army in that they were recruited only for one campaign season at the time. These forces were often recruited through a quota system applied to the militia. Officers were appointed by the provincial governments. During the eighteenth century militia service was increasingly seen as a prerogative of the social and economic well-established, while provincial troops came to be recruited from different and less deep-rooted members of the community.

References

  1. "The Ancient & Honourable Order of The Jersey Blues" (Website). The Hereditary Register Publications. Retrieved 2007-11-08.
  2. "The New Jersey Blues" (Website). Third New Jersey Regiment, Inc. June 2005. Retrieved 2007-11-08.
  3. "National Guard Militia Museum of New Jersey" (Website). The State of New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. 2006-11-30. Retrieved 2007-11-08.
  4. Thomas B. Wilson, "Muster Rolls of Forces on the Frontiers of New Jersey, 1757-1758" The Genealogical Magazine of NJ 62 (no. 1, January 1987)
  5. Richard M. Burr (2006) The South Jersey Connection to Valley Forge
  6. "New Jersey Historical Society". New Jersey Historical Society. 2001. Archived from the original (Website) on 2007-08-18. Retrieved 2007-11-08.

Bibliography