New Jerse'y Organized Militia

NEW JERSEY ORGANIZED MILITIA The following National Guard account is a necessarily incomplete list of the military and naval units of the State of New Jersey. The 1865-1950 period is emphasized almost exclusively with some added weight on the 1869 through 1940 periods, because that is the period in which these units were issued their own medallion awards. Sources for this list, particularly regimental histories, are scarce. Listed for each unit is its official designation, its main location (if known) or general location (if known); its nickname (if any is known) which is placed in parenthesis; its history and connection with other units in brief synopsis; and its motto in quotes followed by a translation if the motto is not itself in English (if any such motto is known).i Prior to the British conquest of New Netherland in 1664, the Dutch maintained a somewhat disorganized force in the colony, which covered parts of modern New Jersey and New York. Semi-regular soldiers in the employ of the Dutch West India Company were backed up by the Burgher Guard, a militia organization. Under the new British law of 1668, men between the ages of sixteen and sixty were obligated to serve in the militia. Ordinary militiamen could avoid service by paying a fine in lieu of showing up for drill, and members of certain professions, from ministers to captains of ships of a certain size and government officials, were exempt from duty. According to the law a militiaman was obligated to provide his own weapon, “a good and sufficient firelock” as well as a pound of powder and “24 bullets fitted to the gun,” and tools for cleaning and maintaining his musket. Militiamen were allowed freedom as to how to prepare and carry their ammunition, either as paper cartridges in a cartridge box or with powder charges carried separately from balls in a “bandoleer” of wooden bottles, or a powder horn. Periodic militia laws essentially restating the points of the initial legislation were passed in 1679, 1682 and 1693. Militia service was designed to be limited and chiefly defensive. In 1698 the Assembly declared that no “free man shall be compelled, enforced, pressed or arrayed” to leave his township for military service save to repel an invasion or “by Special Act of the General Assembly.” New Jersey’s large Quaker population, principally in West Jersey, lobbied for exemption from militia duty due to their religion’s pacifist doctrine, and the West Jersey proprietors were more than willing to grant those exemptions. In 1683, after a number of legislative battles, Quakers were officially exempted from duty in East Jersey without requirement to pay a fine or provide a substitute, which weakened the force both in actuality and morale, and left no effective militia in West Jersey when the entire colony came under royal control in 1702. Volunteer forces from the colony and later the state, not necessarily a part of the state’s organized militia, rendered service to the British for various periods of time during the French and Indian Wars and the United States in the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Civil War and the Spanish American War. Nationally, the militia’s role as a reserve force varied. In the Indian wars of the early 1790s it performed poorly, but in New Jersey, the state’s Militia performed well during the Whiskey Rebellion and as a coastal defense force during the War of 1812 Following the War of 1812, the New Jersey militia deteriorated. Into a group of separate units over which there was minimal central control, rules, or regulations. It became a social club for some, and alcohol flowed on drill days. On the eve of the Civil War New Jersey’s militia was described by one author as “a system of shreds and patches.” During the war, the state created the New Jersey Rifle Corps, intended to be an elite militia type organization alongside the traditional militia. This act was the beginning of the State’s modern military force. During the Civil War, many New Jerseyans served in the Union Army. The state claimed 88,500 men served, but considering administrative errors and reenlistments, the number is probably closer to 73,000,still a substantial number, which included over 3,000 New Jerseyans who served in the United States Colored Troops and the Navy. The success of the well-organized New Jersey Rifle Corps led to the passage of a law in 1869, merging the remnants of the old militia with the Rifle Corps to form the New Jersey National Guard in the organizational structure it was to maintain for many years without change and to which to a certain extent is still maintained. albeit with certain major differences to comply with the 1903 Federal Dick Act and the 1916 US National Defense Act. The post WW I and WW II re-designations of many traditional units caused some loss of unit identities and esprit de corps, but is offset in the opinion of many experts by the successful fulfillment of newer military requirements caused by the evolution of in modern warfare, tactics and equipment. The New Jersey Naval Militia was founded in 1894 and, organized into two detachments, the Battalion of the East, and the Battalion of the West, began active operations the following year. The organization, activated in many but not all states, was intended to act as a naval reserve to be integrated into regular navy ship crews in time of war. An attempt to cut state spending by disbanding the Naval Militia failed in the New Jersey legislature in 1897, and a contemporary newspaper account of that year flatteringly described the unit as “composed principally of business and professional men.” The active duty navy provided advising officers and training ships to the militia In 1905 the Naval Militia, now classified by the New Jersey Adjutant General as the “Naval Reserve” was divided into two battalions. The first battalion, with a strength of 150 officers and men, well below its authorized strength of 273, was stationed in Hoboken, with a headquarters ship, the USS Portsmouth, on the Hudson River. The second battalion, with headquarters on the USS Huntress on the Delaware River in Camden, mustered 162 officers and men. By the 1960’s the Naval Reserve was almost totally dormant. During WW I, the New Jersey State Reserve Militia was created by the state to replace the federalized National Guard with men not fit for US service or who had not been drafted, although membership did not exempt men from the federal military draft if they were eligible. During WW II, the New Jersey Guard was created to replace the federalized National Guard, with the same characteristics overall as the Reserve Militia of WW I. The State’s first aviation unit was created in 1928-1929 with the organization of the 119th Observation Squadron, also known as the 44th Division Aviation Squadron. In 1947, when the Air Force separated from the army, the Air National Guard was separated from the Army National Guard. In 1948 the New Jersey Department of Defense was created to replace the Adjutant General, Quartermaster General, State Military Board and Civil Defense, headed by The New Jersey Chief of Staff. The Governor is the Commander in Chief of all Armed Forces of the State. The title Chief of Staff reverted to Adjutant General in 1984 and remains so today. CORPS and DIVISIONS: The New Jersey Rifle Corps, organized in 1865 under an act of the Legislature, consisted of a Brigade of 32 Companies. It was more organized than the prior New Jersey Militia units and provided the model on which the New Jersey National Guard was organized under the Act of the 93rd New Jersey Legislature in 1869. The New Jersey Rifle Corps was incorporated into the new National Guard in 1869 and the Rifle Cops ceased to exist as a separate organization. The Act creating the National Guard of New Jersey on, March 9, 1869; allowed for no more than 60 companies of Infantry, and artillery batteries not more than two and cavalry companies not more than six, as maybe authorized by the Commander and Chief, to be organized into Brigades, in number not more than three and be compromised in one division, that each county of the state shall be entitled to at least one of said companies. During the period of 1869 through 1917 the state of New Jersey’s military never exceeded two brigades. The New Jersey Division was the informal designation of all units of the National Guard collectively from 1869 to WW I. During the period 1865-1869 the New Jersey Militia consisted of the Newark Brigade: Veteran Regiment and Battalion, Newark Cavalry and Newark City Battery. The Hudson Brigade: 1st & 2nd Regiments, Hudson County Artillery, also the Independent Veteran Battalion of Paterson, Caldwell Union Artillery, and the Monmouth Veteran Artillery. Brigadier General Theodore Runyan, who was also a Brevet Major General in the Militia commanded both the Rifle Corps and Militia. In 1869 the New Jersey National Guard was composed of the 1st Brigade; 1st, 2nd, 4th & 5th Veteran Regiments, 1st & 2nd Battalions, and Battery A (Hoboken / Weehawken, New Jersey) from Essex, Hudson, and Bergen Counties. 2nd Brigade: 3rd Regiment, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th Battalions. Battery B was organized in 1870, Camden, New Jersey. The artillery batteries were replaced by Gatling gun batteries in 1878. Subsequent Organizations • 29th Division (Blue and Grey DIV); formed in 1917 out of National Guard units from New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

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