In the Civil War Jersey City was well represented. It is estimated
that from the district now included in the city, one man from every
five went to the war. From no part of the North was the response to
the Nation's need more prompt or more loyal than in Jersey City.
The President's call for seventy-five thousand troops was issued on
Monday, April 15th, 1861. At the mass meeting held at the Hudson House
on Grand street, on Tuesday evening, the first man in the state to
sign the rolls of volunteers was James M. Weart, a young lawyer in
his twenty-third year. He re-enlisted when his first term expired and
served with distinction throughout the war. The Second Regiment of
three months men was recruited entirely from this district. At the
first call for troops some of the business men of Jersey City advanced
the money necessary for their outfits. A camp was formed for the Jersey
troops west of the reservoir and was occupied from the beginning to the
close of the war. The Second was the only regiment recruited entirely
from Jersey City, but different companies joined various Jersey
regiments and many men enlisted in New York regiments, but wherever
they went they sustained the reputation won in Revolutionary days of
the "True Blues of Jersey."
Many of her brave men, officers and privates, were left upon southern
battlefields. After the battle of Antietam eleven families in one
block in Fifth street mourned for their dead heroes. Colonel Zabriskie
and Colonel Van Houten both fell in battle. Their memories are still
cherished and their brave deeds comemmorated in the Grand Army Posts
which bear their names. Others were more fortunate and lived to wear
the honors won by them. Chief of Police Benjamin Murphy enlisted before
he was seventeen, in the 8th N. J. Infantry, which belonged to the
famous Second New Jersey Brigade. He was one of less than twenty men
of his regiment who served with it continuously from its organization
until it was mustered out without having been absent during its service
of four years and eleven months. He was promoted from private through
the various grades of non-commissioned officers up to captain. After
the war he was connected with the post office for a time, and raised
Company "C" of the 4th Regiment about 1893. After he joined the
police force he resigned from the National Guard. The good order and
discipline of the police force is due to his executive ability. He
was the author of and secured the passage of "The Tenure of Office"
law, which has improved the police force throughout the state. Colonel
Robinson of the police force is a war veteran also, but served with a
Maryland regiment and came to Jersey City after the war.
Brevet Major General John Ramsey had "few superiors as a stubborn
fighter." Several times he received honorable mention in official
reports and won his promotions step by step, from 1st Lieutenant up,
for "distinguished gallantry." Colonel John J. Toffey entered the
Second Regiment a boy of eighteen, re-enlisted in the 33rd Regiment
as Lieutenant, and at Chattanooga was called upon to lead a forlorn
hope in the place of two captains who had fallen in the attempt; his
"superlatively brave conduct saved the position and enabled the entire
line the following morning to press forward and unite the lines of the
army of the Cumberland with those of General Sherman's army at the
mouth of the Chickamauga." At the moment of success Colonel Toffey
received a wound which incapacitated him from future service on the
field, but he has continued his military services in the Veteran Corps
and in the State Militia. He is the proud possessor of a Medal of
Honor, granted by Congress under the Act of 1863, "for distinguished
bravery in the battle of Chattanooga, November 23, 1863."
Although Jersey City has been so well represented in the volunteer
army, there are but three Jersey City men in the regular army; Captain
J. B. Vreeland, now retired, but serving as Quartermaster in the war
with Spain, and George B. Arrowsmith and John J. Toffey, Jr., who have
been appointed Second Lieutenants during the present summer. The late
Major Gaines was in the regular army and served during the Mexican War.
He organized a regiment during the Civil War. For a great many years
he was connected with the Surveyors' Department of the New York Custom
House, and was the delegate appointed by the United States at the Paris
International Conference to bring about a uniform system of measuring
the tonnage of vessels. He was also prominent in procuring increased
cubic space for steerage passengers.