The 1st New Jersey Volunteer Infantry was an American Civil War Union Army regiment of infantry from New Jersey that served in the Army of the Potomac.
It was recruited and mustered into Federal service in May 1861, and was brigaded with the 2nd New Jersey Volunteer Infantry, 3rd New Jersey Volunteer Infantry, and the 4th New Jersey Volunteer Infantry to make up what became famed as the "First New Jersey Brigade". The regiment and brigade served as the 1st Brigade of the 1st Division of the VI Corps, and participated in numerous battles from the June 27, 1862, Battle of Gaines' Mill, Virginia, to the final Union assaults on Confederate positions at Petersburg, Virginia, in April 1865.
The remnents of the 1st New Jersey Volunteer Infantry were mustered out in June 1865.
Notable members of the 1st New Jersey were:
- Colonel William Reading Montgomery - first commander and later Brigadier General of Volunteers
- Colonel Alfred Thomas Archimedes Torbert - later promoted to Brigadier General and commanded the regiment's brigade.
- Colonel Mark Wilkes Collet - led the regiment at the Battle of Fredericksburg and the Battle of Chancellorsville, where he was killed in action.
- Lieutenant Colonel Robert McAllister - later Colonel of the 11th New Jersey Volunteer Infantry, II Corps brigade commander, and Brevet Major General of Volunteers.
- Captain William Brant, Jr. - Medal of Honor Recipient
- Corporal Charles Ferren Hopkins - Medal of Honor Recipient
- Lieutenant and Adjutant Peter Dumont Vroom, Jr. - son of a former Governor of New Jersey, and later Brigadier General in the United States Regular Army.
- 2nd Lieutenant Camille Baquet - author of "History of the First Brigade, New Jersey Volunteers (Kearny's First New Jersey Brigade) from 1861 to 1865", a history of the brigade published in 1910.
Famous quotes containing the words jersey and/or volunteer:
“Ladies and gentlemen, I have a grave announcement to make. Incredible as it may seem, strange beings who landed in New Jersey tonight are the vanguard of an invading army from Mars.”
—Orson Welles (1915–1984)
“We should have an army so organized and so officered as to be capable in time of emergency, in cooperation with the National Militia, and under the provision of a proper national volunteer law, rapidly to expand into a force sufficient to resist all probable invasion from abroad and to furnish a respectable expeditionary force if necessary in the maintenance of our traditional American policy which bears the name of President Monroe.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)