It Happened in NJ...

seventy thousand Patriots died throughout the conflict, including many from New Jersey, was fought in the Garden State. By the time of the Civil War, the bloodiest and most costly war in United States history, more specific recordkeeping denotes that nearly 6,300 New Jersey soldiers died between 1861 and 1865. Thirty-five of those men earned the nation’s highest military decoration, the Congressional Medal of Honor. Their stories, while all unique, follow a similar pattern of bravery to that of Corporal Charles F. Hopkins, who stayed behind during a fierce battle near Gaines’ Mill, Virginia, to carry a wounded soldier to safety while being twice wounded in the act.

The roughly 2,000 New Jersey cemeteries are full of soldiers who, like Hopkins, buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Boonton, New Jersey, fought and many times died to remind future generations that freedom is not free. In fact, the ever-growing number of veteran burials in the state prompted Governor Thomas H. Kean to dedicate the Garden State’s first state-operated veterans’ cemetery in 1986, named after U.S. Army Brigadier General William C. Doyle and located in Wrightstown.

New Jersey is full of individual stories of courage, many recorded for posterity in various levels of detail since the Civil War. As we drive by local burial places blanketed with small American flags and flowers this spring, may we consider the sacrifices and bravery of the men and women underneath the red and white flowers held together with blue ribbons. The Garden State was the home to many heroes. Private Frank J. Bart, buried at Flower Hill Cemetery in North Bergen, when in France during World War I, picked up a heavy machine gun and ran ahead of his line, squeezing the trigger. His heroic charge allowed his compatriots to escape an enemy ambush and save their own lives.

Some World War II stories of New Jersey soldiers have made it to the big screen, as was the case with John “Manila” Basilone, depicted in the critically acclaimed The Pacific. Yet, there are countless others that, although requiring a bit more research, are just as extraordinary.

Captain Carlton R. Routh, buried in Berlin Cemetery in Berlin, New Jersey, first stormed an enemy machine gun nest, then lurched at a Japanese grenade thrown amidst his wounded men and placed his body between them and the explosion. An event he would miraculously survive.

Stories such as these apply to the Korean War, Vietnam, and the more recent wars in the Middle East, reminding us that behind each little American flag wavering in the wind near a grave this Memorial Day is a deed once noble yet sometimes forgotten. Let this year’s holiday, and the ones that follow, be a reminder of a sentiment once shared by American President Abraham Lincoln; “Any nation that does not honor its heroes will not long endure.”

Peter Zablocki is the author of the upcoming New Jersey and the Medal of Honor (November 2023) and the cohost of the History Teachers Talking podcast. For more information, visit www. peterzablocki.com

NAME: Mike Lateiner, DMD, MS

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