The Civil War in New Jersey

Though no major battles were fought in New Jersey, her soldiers and volunteers played an important part in the war, including Philip Kearny and George B. McClellan, who led the Army of the Potomac early in the Civil War and unsuccessfully ran for President of the United States in 1864 against his former commander-in-chief, Abraham Lincoln.

New Jersey was a state split by the Civil War. Economically, it was tied to markets in the South; it was the last northern state to abolish slavery; Newark Journal editorial writer, Edward N. Fuller, supported secession; and it divided its electoral votes in the Presidential election of 1860 (Lincoln received 4 and Stephen A. Douglas, 3). More...