Although there are not many records of the heroic actions of the men in the First New Jersey Calvary during the Civil War, the history of the Regiment proves they were all brave and valiant soldiers who fought numerous battles during the War.
In the end, the Cavalry Regiment alone lost 12 officers and 116 enlisted men killed or mortally wounded in that war between the states. Another 185 enlisted men died of disease. Some came home and reestablished their lives in the new and changed United States of America.
One of these was William Porter, a Sergeant in Company H with the unit when he received his citation for actions on April 6, 1865, just three days before General Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox, Virginia.
The first New Jersey Cavalry Regiment was organized in Trenton in September 1861 and served until the end of the war, participating in 97 different engagements The regiment was organized under the authority of the War Department Aug. 14, 1861 and first known as Halsted’s Cavalry. It left Washington D.C. ten days later and was attached to Heintzelman’s Division in the Army of the Potomac in March the following year. It came under the command of Bayard’s Cavalry Brigade in 1862.
After the Union army broke through a Confederate stronghold at Petersburg, Virginia in early April 1865, soldiers on both sides knew the war was near an end after it was learned General Lee had lost nearly one quarter of his fighting force in three different engagements around Sailor’s Creek, a tributary of the Appomattox River.
Despite the great losses that had preceded, Confederate commands under Richard S. Ewell and Richard H. Anderson made a final stand at Sailor’s Creek. Their flanks were crushed and both Southern generals surrendered on the field to the Union Army in their final effort to uphold the tenets of the South.
Sgt. Porter was born in 1842 and was one of the New Jersey men in the Battle of Sailor’s Creek, one of dozens of battles, skirmishes, and reconnaissance missions the Cavalry completed before that final stand when the Southern generals surrendered. The state is credited with his Medal of Honor since he enlisted in Trenton, most likely because he moved to this state sometime after his birth in New York.
Sgt. Porter survived the battle and the war, and received the Medal of Honor July 3, 1865, two months after the surrender at Appomattox Court House Virginia.
His medal of Honor does not detail any of the anguish he faced during the Battle at Sailor’s Creek, whom some refer to as Saylor’s Creek. It reads simply.
Among the first to check the enemy’s counter charge
He was one of five soldiers who received the Medal of Honor during the final campaign at Saylor’s Creek.
Here is a memorial to the New Jersey Cavalry at the Gettsyburg Civil War Museum.
Read more stories of New Jersey Medal of Honor Recipients
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