Today in New Jersey history:
May 3, 1765: Charles Read bought a half interest in Batsto Furnace and several thousand acres of Batsto property from Richard Wescoat for 200 pounds.
May 3, 1861: New Jersey’s four regiment militia brigade left Trenton for Washington aboard motorized canal boats down the Delaware River. Many militiamen were also armed with privately owned revolvers and Bowie knives. Some celebrated by firing their handguns randomly in the air, and one careless Jersey City man from the 2nd Militia Regiment accidentally shot another soldier. The boat trip avoided Baltimore, where there had been riots; the Jerseymen debarked at Annapolis, and then took trains to Washington. The New Jerseyans were the first full brigade to reach the capital.
