NEW JERSEY VOLUNTEERS.

Fifth Regiment – Infantry – Volunteers.

The Fifth Regiment was organized under the provisions of an Act of Congress, approved July 22, 1861, as set forth in an official letter from the President of the United States, dated Washington, D. C., July 24, 1861, and from War Department, Washington, D. C., dated July 29, 1861. The Regiment was fully organized, equipped and officered by the 22d day of August, at which time it was duly mustered into the service of the United States, for three years, at Camp Olden, Trenton, N. J., by Captain Alfred T. A. Torbert, U. S. Army. It left the State, August 29, 1861, with a full complement of men. Officers, 38; Non-Commissioned Officers and Privates, 823. Total, 861. Upon arrival at Washington, the Regiment went into camp at Meridian Hill, D. C., and there remained until the early part of December, 1861, at which time, in connection with the Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Regiments, they were ordered to report, under command of Colonel Samuel H. Starr, the senior officer, to General Joseph Hooker, U. S. Volunteers, near Budd’s Ferry, Md., where they were brigaded and known as the Third Brigade, Hooker’s Division. In August, 1862, Company A was disbanded, and the officers and enlisted men were assigned by transfer to different companies in the Regiment, and under authority issued from War Department, Adjutant General’s Office, Washington, D. C., a new Company A, of three officers and ninety-six enlisted men was raised, mustered and forwarded to the Regiment in the field, on or about the 1st of October, 1862. Under the provisions of General Orders, No. 191, War Department, Adjutant General’s Office, Washington, D. C., June 25, 1863, a number of the men re-enlisted in the field for three years or during the war. Those who did not re-enlist and whose term of service having expired, reported by order at Trenton, N. J., and were mustered out by Captain James W. Long, Second Infantry, U. S. Army, September 7th, 1864. During the months of August and September, 1864, a large number of substitutes were forwarded to and joined the Regiment. These men, with those who had re-enlisted and those whose term of service had not expired, were assigned to what was known as Companies A, B, C and D, Fifth Battalion, and continued their organization until November 6th, 1864, at which time they were transferred to and consolidated with the Seventh Regiment, under the provisions of Special Orders, No. 375, War Department, Adjutant General’s Office, Washington, D. C., October 31, 1864, and by reason of such transfer the Regiment as an organization ceased to exist.

This Regiment constituted one of the Four Regiments composing what was generally known as the Second Brigade, New Jersey Volunteers, and was first attached to the Third Brigade, Hooker’s Division; afterward to the Third Brigade, Second Division, Third Corps; then to the First Brigade, Fourth Division, Second Corps; then to the Third Brigade, Third Division, Second Corps.

The Regiment took part in the following engagements: Siege of Yorktown, Va., April and May, ’62; Williamsburg, Va., May 5, ’62; Fair Oaks, Va., June 1 and 2, ’62; Seven Pines, Va., June 25, ’62; Savage Station, Va., June 29, ’62; Glendale, Va., June 30, ’62; Malvern Hill, Va., July 1, ’62; Malvern Hill, Va., August 15, ’62; Bristow Station, Va., August 27, ’62; Bull Run, Va., August 29 and 30, ’62; Chantilly, Va., August 31, ’62; Centreville, Va., Sept. 2, ’62; Fredericksburg, Va., Dec. 13 and 14, ’62; Chancellorsville, Va., May 3 and 4, ’63; Gettysburg, Pa., July 2 and 3, ’63; Wapping Heights, Md., July 24, ’63; McLean’s Ford, Va., Oct. 13, ’63; Mine Run, Va., Nov. 29, 30, and Dec. 1, ’63; Wilderness, Va., May 5 and 6, ’64; Spottsylvania, Va., May 8 to 11, ’64; Spottsylvania C. H., Va., May 12 to 18, ’64; North Anna River, Va., May 23 and 24, ’64; Tolopotomy Creek, Va., May 30 and 31, ’64; Cold Harbor, Va., June 1 to 5, ’64; Before Petersburg, Va., June 16 to 23 ’64; Deep Bottom, Va., July 26 and 27, ’64; Mine Explosion, Va., July 30, ’64; North Bank of James River, Va., August 14 to 18, ’64; Fort Sedqwick, Va., Sept. 10, ’64; Poplar Spring Church, Va., Oct. 2, ’64; Boydton Plank Road, Va., Oct. 27, ’64; Fort Morton, Va., Nov. 5, ’64.

Field and Staff, Fifth Regiment.

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