Type: Exhibition caption

Detail: Although Robert McAllister (1813-1891) was born and raised in Pennsylvania, the outbreak of the Civil War found him involved in the construction of railroad tunnels through the Oxford hills of Warren County. Leaving the conduct of this business to a partner, he entered the service as a lieutenant-colonel in the First New Jersey Volunteers. He remained with the First Regiment until July 1862, when Governor Olden appointed him colonel of the newly-formed Eleventh Regiment. Eventually McAllister rose to brigade command, receiving permanent charge of the Second New Jersey Brigade in 1864. He was promoted to major-general in March 1865. McAllister was one of the very few men who participated in almost all of the pitched battles of the Army of Potomac.

Type: Exhibition case

Name: From Fredericksburg to Chancellorsville

Detail: In late 1862, General Ambrose Burnside, who had had some success at Roanoke Island and New Bern, North Carolina, replaced McClellan as commander of the Army of the Potomac. Burnside devised a plan to go around Robert E. Lee and on to Richmond by crossing the Rappahannock River at Fredericksburg. For many of the recently recruited nine-month and three-year New Jersey regiments, including the Twenty-fourth, Twenty-fifth, and Twenty-eight, the Battle of Fredericksburg on December 13 would be their first experience of warfare. By the end of the day, the Union army, unable to break through the Confederate defenses, had suffered one of the worst defeats of the war. The defeat caused low morale in the army and at home, and dissatisfaction with Burnside, who was replaced by Joseph Hooker in January 1863. In May, Hooker made another attempt to cross the Rappahannock upstream from Fredericksburg, in what became known as the Chancellorsville campaign.