A Civil War Encampment Coming to Woodbury

In an event co-sponsored by the Gloucester County Historical Society, re-enactors of the Civil War's 12th New Jersey Infantry Regiment, Company K, will stage an encampment on the grounds of Woodbury's Friends Meetinghouse at 124 N. Broad St. from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, June 20.

The free event will be a living history demonstration of daily life in the Union Army during the Civil War, including drilling, manual of arms, weapons inspections, and all the various military supplies, equipment, and tools used by troops of that era. Visitors will be encouraged to wander the encampment, take photos, speak with the soldiers, and experience some hands-on history.

There is free parking in the Gloucester County Superior Court parking garage on Hunter street just around the corner from the Meetinghouse.

The memory of the 12th NJ Infantry is actively preserved by a dedicated group of locally based Civil War re-enactors who participate in educational encampments and historical preservation projects. They are one of the country's best-known re-enactor groups, with members having participated as authentic extras in Civil War movies, including Turner Broadcasting’s “Gettysburg” (1993), British TV’s “Ironclads” (1991), Columbia Pictures’ “Glory” (1989), and DreamWorks Pictures’ “Lincoln” (2012), as well as several smaller historical TV productions.

The June 20 encampment is particularly relevant to Woodbury and the surrounding Gloucester County because the original 12th New Jersey Regiment was organized at the Union Army's Camp Stockton in Woodbury in 1862, when that boot camp was located along S. Evergreen Avenue in the southern end of the city. (Today, there is a Camp Stockton historic site memorial marker at that location —CampStockton Memorial | 39.82719, -75.15422).

The 12th New Jersey Regiment went on to serve in some of the most important and ferocious actions of the war, including the battles of Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, and the Siege of Petersburg.

It was also an unusual and experimental military unit in that its members were issued the Union Army's latest weaponry — .69-caliber Springfield muskets loaded with "buck and ball" ammunition. These guns used a devastating paper cartridge containing one large round of lead ball and three smaller buckshot that turned a standard military longarm into a hybrid between a rifle and a shotgun, ultimately turning a regiment into a line of giant, synchronized shotguns. Five hundred men firing a single volley of buck and ball sent 2,000 metal projectiles flying at 700 mph into an approaching enemy's ranks.

On the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg, companies of the 12th New Jersey launched a brilliant, bloody charge to seize the tactical stronghold of the Bliss Barn in the middle of the battlefield — an exploit historians characterize as "one of the most consequential" small actions of the conflict. They captured 92 prisoners and broke a crucial piece of Gen. Robert E. Lee's local field position.

On the next day of conflict, 530 soldiers of the 12th New Jersey were posted behind a wall on Cemetery Ridge in the middle of that most important battle of the war as Pickett's massed troops advanced toward them. In a pivotal stand, the 12th New Jersey's buck-and-ball volleys shattered that whole section of the Confederate charge at close range, turning the tide of the assault.

From Sept. 4, 1862, when they shipped out of Woodbury, to the end of the war, a total of 1,899 men served in the 12th; 276 died, and 520 were seriously wounded. By the time the regiment mustered out in June 1865, fewer than a third of the original members who marched out of Camp Stockton in 1862 walked back home to New Jersey together in 1865.
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Gloucester County Historical Society
Contact: (856) 848-8531 | museum@gchsnj.org
Event Location: bit.ly/FriendsMeetingHouse | 39.84062, -75.1511944
Free Parking: bit.ly/WoodburyFreeParking | 39.8396111,-75.1511944