Type: Exhibition case

Name: The Early Years

Detail: None of the New Jersey units saw much action in the first year of the war. In August, 1861, they became part of the Army of the Potomac, the new designation for units stationed around Washington under the command of General George B. McClellan. The New Jersey troops began fighting in earnest in the winter and spring of 1862, when McClellan pursued the strategy of trying to capture Richmond by an invasion of the Peninsula of Virginia. By early summer, it became clear that the plan was not a success. Robert E. Lee’s Confederates pushed McClellan’s forces back with heavy casualties, including the loss of New Jersey’s most renowned war hero, Major General Philip Kearny. The campaign ended with the Union’s near rout at the Second Battle of Bull Run in August 1862.