April 15, 1854: The ship Powhattan (aka Powhatan) ran aground about six miles south of the Harvey Cedars Lifesaving station in a storm. The vessel remained afloat until the following day and then broke apart, resulting in the deaths of the entire crew and passengers. Victims washed up on the beach as far south as Atlantic City and were buried nearby. Fifty-four were interred in a mass grave at Smithville Methodist Church and forty-five in Absecon. More bodies washed ashore at Peahala on Long Beach Island and were buried in pauper’s graves in the Baptist cemetery in Manahawkin, where a monument was erected by the State of New Jersey in 1904 to honor the victims of the wreck. The Powhatan disaster served as an impetus for the building of the Absecon lighthouse later in the year.
April 15, 1861: President Abraham Lincoln called for 75,000 militiamen for three months service in the wake of the Confederate bombardment of Fort Sumter as the Civil War began. New Jersey’s quota was four regiments.
