By Edward G. Longacre
Recruited as sharpshooters and clothed in distinctive
uniforms with green trim, the hand-picked regiment of the Ninth
New Jersey Volunteer Infantry was renowned and admired far and wide. The
only New Jersey regiment to reenlist for the duration of the Civil War at the
close of its initial three-year term, the Ninth saw action in forty-two
battles and engagements across three states. Throughout the South, the regiment
broke up enemy camps and supply depots, burned bridges, and destroyed railroad
tracks to thwart Confederate movements. Members of the Ninth also suffered
disease and starvation as POWs at the notorious Andersonville prison camp in
Georgia.
Recruited largely from socially conservative cities and
villages in northern and central New Jersey, the Ninth Volunteer Infantry
consisted of men with widely differing opinions about the Union and their
enemy. Edward G. Longacre unearths these complicated political and social
views, tracing the history of this esteemed regiment before, during, and after
the war—from recruitment at Camp Olden to final operations in North Carolina.
About the Author
Edward G. Longacre is the award-winning author
of numerous books on the Civil War, including The Early Morning of
War: Bull Run, 1861; Fitz Lee: A Military Biography of Major
General Fitzhugh Lee, C.S.A. (Nebraska, 2010); and Gentleman and
Soldier: A Biography of Wade Hampton III (Nebraska, 2009). He lives in
Newport News, Virginia, on land fought over during the 1862 Peninsula Campaign.
ISBN 978-1612348070, Potomac Books, © 2017, Hardcover, 432
pages, Photographs, Maps, Illustrations, Appendix, End Notes, Bibliography
& Index. $34.95. To purchase this book click HERE.
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