Jerseymen Break the Line & a Fire in Ridgefield

Today in New Jersey history:

June 15, 1864: The Twenty-second United States Colored Infantry, a regiment composed mostly of New Jersey African-American soldiers, was part of a force that broke through the Confederate defenses of Petersburg. The Twenty-second captured an enemy fort and artillery pieces, but their army corps commander, Major General William F. “Baldy” Smith, halted the victorious advance. When Confederate reinforcements arrived, Petersburg was saved and a ten month siege of the critical rail junction began.

June 15, 1927: Firemen resorted to dynamite to check flames spreading from an explosion in a film plant which had threatened part of the borough of Ridgefield for three hours. One of the employees of the plant suffered burns, but there were no fatalities.