Regimental History - The Second Brigade
Derived from George Reeser Prowell's History of Camden County NJ
Camden County was also strongly represented in the Second New Jersey Brigade of three years' troops, which was composed of the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Regiments. Companies D, E, G, I and K, of the Sixth, were raised in Camden County, and the regiment was mustered into the United States service at Camp Olden, Trenton, August 19, 1861. The Sixth left the State on September 10th, with thirty-eight commissioned officers and eight hundred and sixty non-commissioned officers and privates. At Washington it went into camp at Meridian Hill, and in December the four regiments reported to General Hooker, at Budd's Ferry, Maryland, when they were brigaded as the Third Brigade, Hooker's division; afterwards as the Third Brigade, Second Division, Third Corps; then as the First Brigade, Fourth Division, Second Corps; and lastly as the Third Brigade, Third Division, Second Corps.
At Williamsburg, Virginia, May 5, 1862, it was in the thickest of the battle, losing over five hundred men, among whom was Lieutenant Colonel John P. Van Leer, of the Sixth, a citizen of Camden, and thirty-eight killed and seventy-eight wounded, of the same regiment. On June 1st, at Turner's Farm, General Hooker placed himself at the head of the Fifth and Sixth Regiments and "charged straight into and through the woods, breaking the rebel lines and driving the enemy in great confusion for a consider-able distance, recovering all the ground lost by Casey's division and ending the fight for the day on that part of the line."
The other battles of the Peninsular Campaign in which the Sixth took part were Fair Oaks, June 25th; Glendale, June 30th; and Malvern Hill, July 1st and August 20th. In this campaign the Second New Jersey Brigade had six hundred and thirty-four officers and men killed and wounded out of its total strength of twenty-seven hundred, From the swamps it was moved to reinforce Pope, and bore the brunt of the engagement at Bristow Station, on July 27th, and was an active participant in the fighting of the four, succeeding days at Bull Run and Chantilly, In this series of disastrous battles that eclipsed Pope's military fame its ranks were depleted to the extent of two hundred and forty-eight killed, wounded and missing, the Sixth's share being one hundred and four, or more than double that of any other of the four regiments. The report of Lieutenant Colonel George C. Burling, commanding the Sixth, says,—
"Wednesday morning, August 27th, marched in the direction of Manassas, and when near Bristoe's Station found the enemy in force. In a short time we met the pickets and drove them in. We were then ordered to take an advanced position on a hill to the right in front of us, which we gained without loss under a terrible fire of shell from the enemy. We were then ordered to relieve the Second New York, Eighth New Jersey and One Hundred and Fifteenth Pennsylvania Regiments, who were engaged on the right. Immediately on reaching our new position, the enemy fled in great confusion, leaving their dead and wounded in great numbers on the field. We pursued them for two miles and encamped for the night. August 28th, pursued the enemy through the day and encamped near Blackburn's Ford that night.
"August 29th, left camp at three o'clock, A. M. pursuing the enemy through Centreville, down the Warrington Road. Crossing Bull Run at ten A.M., we formed a line of battle and advanced, in the woods, to relieve one of General Sigel's regiments, where we found the enemy in force behind the embankment of an old railroad. After delivering and receiving several volleys, we charged and drove them from their position, when they received reinforcements, and were compelled to fall back nearly fifty yards, which position we held until we were relieved by the Second Maryland Regiment. During this engagement Colonel G. Mott and Major S. E. Gilkyson, while gallantly encouraging their men, were wounded.
"August 30th, formed a line of battle about four o'clock, P. M., and were ordered to support batteries to the right and rear of the position we had held the day before. Through some misunderstanding, my regiment being on the right, the other regiments composing the brigade were withdrawn without my knowledge, leaving me in a very critical position. The enemy making a charge upon the batteries in front, compelling them to fall back, I determined to resist their advance when to my astonishment I found we were flanked right and left; I then ordered the regiment to fall back in the woods, which was done in order, and thus checked the advance of the enemy in front. At this time, finding the flanks of the enemy rapidly closing round us, the only safety for my command was to retreat. In trying to extricate ourselves from the critical position in which we were placed my command suffered severely. I was enabled to rally my regiment on a hill in close proximity to the battlefield, under the shell of the enemy, where we remained in line of battle until ordered by the ranking officer to fall back to Centreville, where we joined the brigade the following morning.
Captains T. W. Baker and T. C. Moore are alluded to as displaying especial gallantry.
At Chancellorsville, on May 3, 1863, General Mott having been wounded, General William J. Sewell took command of the brigade and distinguished himself by taking it into a charge which a correspondent of the Washington Chronicle described as "one of those splendid achievements seldom occurring in this war so far, but which, when occurring, cover a soldier's career with imperishable glory." The brigade's loss in this engagement was three hundred and seventy-eight, six killed and fifty-nine wounded being credited to the Sixth.
[Colonel Burling was commander of this brigade at Gettysburg, where it did noble service on the afternoon of July 2. He sent the Sixth into the Devil's Den, where it lost one man killed and thirty-two wounded.]
The next engagement for the Sixth after Gettysburg was the skirmish at McLean's Ford, on Bull Run, October 15th. On May 6, 1864, in the Wilderness, and on the 10th and 12th, around Spotsylvania Courthouse, it was in the most perilous positions of those hard-fought fields, and behaved with much gallantry in the charge on the salient held by Ewell's Confederates, in which three thousand prisoners and thirty guns were taken. Adjutant C. F. Moore and Lieutenant Note brought off one of these guns with a squad of the Sixth and turned it upon the enemy. Seven hundred men, killed and wounded, were subtracted from the brigade on that terrible 12th of May.
Between June 3d and 21st the Sixth participated in the fighting on the north bank of the James River, and the attacks on Petersburg. Its losses in May and June were sixteen killed, ninety-nine wounded and eight missing. Its final engagement was near Deep Bottom, James River, August 14th to 18th, when, its three years of service having expired, it was ordered to report at Trenton, and was mustered out September 7th, 1864