Official Site of The State of New Jersey
Sanspeur "Without Fear"
By Dr. (COL Ret) William C. Lowe, December 2018
A scholarly work chronicling the segregated Army from the Civil War thru the post-WWII period.
The New Jersey National Guard, 1869-1900
By Joseph G. Bilby
The post-Civil War New Jersey National Guard was a significant improvement over the state’s “shreds and patches” 1860 militia.
102nd Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron (Mecz)
During the entire eleven months from D-Day to VE Day the 102nd had missions at, or very near, the front line of the American advance. Their missions took them through France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany.
44th Infantry Division
Activated after World War I as a National Guard Division in New Jersey and New York. The 44th landed in France via Cherbourg, 15 September 1944, and trained for a month before entering combat, 18 October 1944.
22nd United States Colored Infantry
By Joseph G. Bilby
A scholarly work on the history of the 22nd USCI during the Civil War published in Freedom to All - New Jersey's African-American Civil War Soldiers (Hightstown, NJ Longstreet House, 2011).
Painting by Peter Culos.
First Sergeant George Ashby
By Joseph G. Bilby
The story of George Ashby, an African American who was the last surviving NJ Civil War veteran. Published in New Jersey Goes to War (Ridge Wood, NJ: NJ Civil War Heritage Assn:, 2010).
New Jersey National Guard Pioneered the End of Segregation
The post-World War II era dawned with a new realization that the promises of the Civil War could no longer be denied, and the Civil Rights movement gained new strength based on the wartime sacrifices made by black men and women in defense of the country.
In 1947 New Jersey adopted a new constitution, replacing the previous Constitution of 1844 and specifically forbidding racial discrimination. With this in mind, and considering the fact that the state’s National Guard, then engaged in a rebuilding effort, was actively recruiting men for the new Fiftieth Armored Division, Governor Alfred E. Driscoll advised Secretary of Defense James Forrestal that the New Jersey National Guard would be desegregated in compliance with the state’s constitution and that men would be recruited into units regardless of race.
Driscoll then issued an order to his National Guard officers to disregard an army order stating that “mixed units are not authorized and Negroes cannot be enlisted in white units.” Forrestal passed the buck down to Army Secretary Kenneth C. Royall. Royall, in response to Driscoll, averred that although he considered regular army segregation to be “in the interest of national defense,” he would make an exception for the New Jersey National Guard because the people of the state, in voting for their new constitution, had indicated that “no person shall…be segregated in the militia because of race, color…” On February 12, 1948, the New Jersey adjutant general’s office published General Order No. 4, stating that “no qualified person shall be denied any military rights, nor be discriminated against in exercise of any military rights, nor be segregated in the militia because of religious principles, race, color, ancestry or national origin.”
New Jersey’s actions put the state decisively ahead of the federal government in eliminating discrimination in the military; the dream of equality New Jersey’s African-American soldiers fought so hard for in 1865 finally began to be realized in 1948.
The Adjutants General of New Jersey
This booklet introduces the thirty-two individual Citizen-Soldiers who have served as Adjutant General of the great state of New Jersey, from the auspicious year of 1776 to the present day.
New Jersey and the Great War: Part I
By Dr. Richard J. Connors
An adapted version of Dr. Connors’ book, New Jersey and the Great War (Dorrance, 2017).
New Jersey and the Great War: Part II
By Dr. Richard J. Connors
An adapted version of Dr. Connors’ book, New Jersey and the Great War (Dorrance, 2017).
1st Battalion, 114th Infantry Regiment
By Brian Darling
A scholarly work documenting the history of the 1st Bn., 114th Infantry, from the period of 1860 to the start of World War I.
New Jersey Organized Militia
Compiled, re-written and edited by:
Colonel Leonard Luzky, INF, NJNG, February 2003
Mr. Joseph Bilby, NGMMNJ, October 2020
A necessarily incomplete list of the military and naval units of the State of New Jersey. The 1865-1950 period is emphasized almost exclusively with some added weight on the 1869 through 1940 periods.
Guarding History
"Guarding History" is a documentary video series by the New Jersey National Guard.
