The regimental colors of the 5th New Jersey.
Some things happen to you in life, those stupid little things, that make you step back in the middle of a busy day and just say, “Whoa.” As I get ready to prepare the April issue of my newspaper, The Proprietary Times, for our association in Perth Amboy, I asked my friend and the House’s chief financial officer, George Ryan, if he could offer up an editorial on something related to New Jersey and the American Civil War. With mounds of research at his disposal, for both lectures and the book he is writing, he chose to submit an article on the 5th New Jersey Regiment (which his book focuses on) that was created in the summer of 1861, in response to Abraham Lincoln’s calling of more volunteers after the first battle and Union defeat at First Bull Run. The article was very interesting, as it detailed the major battles that the regiment was apart of, including Second Manassas, being held in reserve at Fredericksburg, performing heroically at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, as well as bearing witness to Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox in 1865. The unit was comprised mostly of men from the cities of Rahway, Perth Amboy, and Woodbridge, and was captained by Thomas Godfrey and Henry Woolsey. I thought the story would end there, until I went into work the next day as a substitute teacher.
