Sons of New Jersey, The

DESCRIPTION: "There was a call for volunteers sometime in last year, And there the sons of New Jersey did quickly volunteer." "Burnside now is in command" and on his way to Richmond. The men of the 24th "will fight for Uncle Sam"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2008 (Cohen); probably composed 1862
KEYWORDS: soldier Civilwar nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov. 9. 1862: Ambrose Burnside replaces George B. McClellan as commander of the Army of the Potomac
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2210, p. 148, "The Sons of New Jersey" (1 reference)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 124-125, "The Sons of New Jersey" (1 text)
NOTES [250 words]: Cohen calls the background of this song "obscure," but we have three useful facts: The song is about New Jersey troops, it refers to the "24th" (i.e. 24th New Jersey), and Burnside is now in command. But Hunt, p. 187, notes that the only colonel the 24th New Jersey had was William B. Robertson, mustered in September 16, 1862 (the day before Antietam) and mustered out June 29, 1863 (just before Gettysburg).
In other words, the 24th New Jersey was a nine month regiment (confirmed by Fox, p. 482), formed in the fall of 1862 and joining the Federal service just about when Ambrose Burnside took command of the Army of the Potomac. The soldiers were still too new to realize how much trouble that meant they were in.... They paid the price at Fredericsburg: They were part of Nathan Kimball's first brigade of W. H. French's third division of Darius Couch's second corps (Palfrey, p. 208), and French's division was chosen to lead the attack on Marye's Heights, the best-defended part of the entire Confederate position. The attack there made Fredericksburg a by-word for sacrificial failures, and the 24th was one reason why: it suffered 136 men killed and wounded (Fox, p. 483) -- of whom 52 died (Fox, p. 21) because of Burnside's incompetence.
The 24th's other major battle was Chancellorsville; it was still in the first brigade, third division, second corps, although the brigade was now commanded by Col. S. S. Carroll; is suffered three killed, 21 wounded, 12 missing (Sears, p. 479). - RBW
Bibliography

HuntMidAtlantic: Roger D. Hunt, Colonels in Blue: Union Army Colonels of the Civil War: The Mid-Atlantic States, Stackpole, 2007
Fox: William F. Fox, Regimental Losses in the American Civil War 1861-1865, 1881; fourth edition 1888 (I use a photoreproduction of the 1898 Albany Press edition which does not list a publisher!)
Palfrey: Francis Winthrop Palfrey, The Antietam and Fredericksburg, Campaigns of the Civil War series, 1882 (I use the 2002 Castle Books reprint)
Sears: Stephen W. Sears, Chancellorsville, Houghton Mifflin, 1996

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File: CAFS124

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