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DURING the administration of President Polk (1845-49) the war with Mexico occurred, in consequence of the adoption by Congress of Senator Benton’s bill for the annexation of Texas, which had declared its independence of Mexico in 1833, and obtained its freedom as the result of the battle of San Jacinto April 21, 1836, when the Texans, under General Sam Houston, defeated Santa Anna’s Mexican army. The population of Texas was largely made up of emigrants from the United States, and almost as soon as they had organized a government by electing Houston as President, they asked for admission to the United States. They had to wait nine years, however, the sinister remonstrances and threats of Mexico, which still cherished hopes of regaining her lost territory, deterring Congress from acceding to the application. But the Americans crowded so rapidly into the new republic that there could be no question but that its future was destined to be united with that from which it had drawn its people and its institutions, and notwithstanding that the Senate in 1844 rejected the annexation treaty negotiated by President Tyler, a year later it and the House of Representatives were ready to favorably answer the petition of Texas.
Mexico officially announced that she regarded this as an act of war, and by taking up arms sacrificed forever her claim upon Texas, and was eventually compelled to confirm the conquests of Colonel Philip Kearny and Colonel John C. Fremont in New Mexico and Upper California by the session of those regions to the United States.
The Whigs had opposed and the Democrats had favored the annexation of Texas; New Jersey had voted for Henry Clay and against Polk for President in 1844; and in the existing situation of affairs the Whig majority regarded with misgivings a war which they feared would result in the extension of slavery in the Southwest. Yet the quota of troops, which the national government required the State to furnish, was filled without difficulty, and was forwarded to Mexico in time to join in General Taylor’s victories in 1846 and 1847, at Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, Monterey, Saltillo and Buena Vista. Then they joined the army under Scott, to the triumphs at Vera Cruz, Cerro Cordo, Perote, Contreras, San Antonio, Molino del Rey, Cherubusco, Chapultepec and the City of Mexico. Between May 8, 1846, the date of the battle of Palo Alto, and September 7, 1847, when the entry into the City of Mexico was made, the American armies, never counting as high as eight thousand effective men, had in twenty engagements never failed to defeat the enemy, who were invariably twice or thrice their strength in numbers, had stormed fortifications supposed to be impregnable and utterly vanquished a foe who at the outset of the war had affected to despise "Los Gringos."
The Jersey commands participating in these marvelous campaigns were all, with one exception, mustered at Trenton into the regular army; and, therefore, no record was kept of the place & their organization, or of the residence of individual recruits. The rosters presented in the office of the adjutant-general at Trenton merely show names and assignments to companies or regiments, rendering it impossible to fix through the rolls the towns and counties that supplied any one body of troops. Circumstances, however, indicate that most of the men who went from Camden County were mustered into the Tenth Regiment united States Infantry.
In addition to the companies thus received into the service by the War Department, a call was made on Governor Charles C. Stratton, of New Jersey, on May 23, 1846, for a regiment of volunteer infantry, and in response to his proclamation a number of companies were offered from Newark, Trenton, Burlington and Flemington. Brigadier-General Goodwin is stated in Baum’s history to have offered the Passaic brigade, and on May 29, 1846, Captain Samuel Colt tendered a battalion.
CAMDEN COUNTY SOLDIERS. - The following is a complete record, so far as could be ascertained, of troops from Camden County who served in the Mexican War. They are accredited to Camden County on the original muster-out roll of the company, on file in the office of the adjutant-general in Trenton. They were mustered into the battalion at Fort Hamilton, New York Harbor:
Company A, New Jersey Battalion, was mustered in September 1, 1847, and mustered out August 5, 1848.
Captain.
Henry A. Naglee
Second Lieutenant.
Isaac W. Mickle.
Sergeants.
David D. Nichols.
John M. Mickle.
Corporal.
John Spear.
Drummer.
William H. Benckert.
Privates.
Charles S. Bates.
John W. Lumley.
Charles Bessonett.
Samuel Lumley.
Francis S. Bosler.
John McNulty.
John B. Berger.
Joseph M. Myers.
James Canning.
Charles Orhley.
Samuel Cleary.
George P. Potts.
Peter Cunningham.
William W. Reilly.
Thomas Deizley.
Charles F. Rodgers.
James Falan.
Frederick Rothweiler
Lawrence Garey.
William Shery.
Thomas Gaynor.
Thomas Shimus.
Barnet Hansel.
Charles V. Smith.
William Hera.
Alexander Steward.
Henry W. Howard.
Henry Williams.
Israel Leamer.
John Winters.
Total: Two commissioned officers and forty enlisted men. The following served in the Mexican War in Pennsylvania companies and in the navy, but were not accredited to Camden County. They entered the United States service from Camden County, -
Captains.
James McCracken.
William Newton.
Lieutenant.
James B. Sutherland.
Boatswain’s Mate.
Ziba Sears.
Sergeant.
Aquilla Haines.
Corporal.
Isaac Toy.
Gunner’s Mate.
Ezra Lukens.
The battalion of New Jersey infantry to which the Camden County company was assigned went out from West Jersey. There were many who entered the marine service, the naval service, the regular army, and others again, who were transferred to the store-ship "Fredonia," the bomb brigs, "Vesuvius" and "Heckla," as also the war steamers "Spitfire" and "Iris," and the sloop-of-war "Falcon." There were thirteen men from Camden and Gloucester Counties on the frigate "Cumberland," under Commodore Conner, and who were landed below the city of Vera Cruz on the morning of the 9th of March, 1847. They assisted in landing shot and shell, planting batteries and preparing to attack the celebrated castle San Juan de Ulloa. General Scott summoned the city to surrender on the 22d, but receiving a negative answer, the heavy mortars opened fire, which was continued until the 27th, when General Landero, commandant of the city, commenced negotiations for their surrender. In the mean time the little "Spitfire," a steamer not larger than one of the small ferry-boats on the Delaware, put out on the guards two men at heaving the lead to find a passage over the coral reef. One of these was a Jerseyman from Camden County, Boatswain’s Mate Ziba Sears, who had distinguished himself in the determined effort to discover a channel or thoroughfare over this reef; which extends for three miles around and beyond the castle and early on the 27th did succeed in finding a crossing-place. At once the "Spitfire" advanced boldly up under the walls of the San Juan, the guns of which were mounted en barbette and could not be depressed sufficiently to do any material damage to the steamer. The "Spitfire" ran right under the guns of the castle, and tossed red-hot shot into it and set the buildings on fire and compelled the surrender of the castle. When Vera Cruz and the castle surrendered, the detachment of Major John Reynolds, to which the Camden Company was attached, at once captured Alvarado and Hocatalpam, ninety miles below Vera Cruz. Major Reynolds was enthusiastic in his praises of the soldierly bearing of the Jersey troops. James M. Sutherland, of Woodbury, a first lieutenant in this detachment, was the first to mount the scaling ladders at Chapultepec and planted the Stars and Stripes upon the walls of the city. On the 19th of April, 1847, these same troops attacked and took possession of Perote and throughout the entire war took an active part. On the 8th of May, 1848; peace was declared between the United States and Mexico, and at this time the great insurrection was in progress in the peninsula of Yucatan, and the cities on the Gulf coast were in danger and applied to the United States for protection. Our government nobly responded and called for volunteers from among those who were preparing to return home after a grand and glorious conquest. Some of the naval squadron and marines and five hundred of the troops, among whom were some of the Camden company, were at once forwarded to Laguna, Sisal and Campeche. The flint-lock muskets and ammunition were turned over to the authorities of the cities, the insurgents were routed, and in November, 1848, six months after the term of service of these troops in the Mexican War had expired, they returned home via Norfolk, being discharged from the different vessels of the squadron.
Captain C.N. Pelouze, of 604 South Fifth Street, Camden, is one of the survivors of the Mexican War. Elisha N. Luckett was a second lieutenant in the Second Pennsylvania Regiment in the Mexican War. He now resides in Camden. Joseph Camp, residing three miles south of Camden, is also a survivor of the Mexican War.
CAPTAIN FRANK H. COLES, whose services in the preparation of the military chapters and other parts in this work were of great value, entered the marine service in the Mexican War in 1847, assigned to the frigate "Cumberland" mentioned above, and afterward to the United States steamer "Iris," participated in the capture of ‘Vent Cruz, Alvarado and Hocatalpam, and was one of the volunteers to Yucatan.
Captain Coles was born at Woodbury, September 28, 1827, and is of Swedish descent, his great-grandfather, Job Coles, having emigrated from Sweden nearly two centuries ago. His father, Samuel Coles, was an ensign in the War of l812. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Captain Coles, between the 12th and 16th of April, 1861, materially assisted in raising the first company that went out from Gloucester County, of which he became first lieutenant. He afterwards entered the three years’ service as first sergeant in Third Regiment of General Kearny’s brigade; was promoted to second lieutenant of Company G May 29, 1862; promoted to first lieutenant March 24, 1863. After being wounded on June 27, 1863, at Gaines’ Mills, he was transferred, December 18, 1863, to the Veteran Reserve Corps as captain, commanding Fifty-first and Fifty-second Companies, Second Battalion, Veteran Reserve Corps. He remained in the service until June 29, 1865.
Captain Coles was married, in December, 1849, to Anna Elizabeth Harker, daughter of Joseph Harker, of Swedesboro’ and eldest sister of Brigadier-General Charles C. Harker, a graduate of West Point Military Academy, who was killed at Kennesaw Mountain, Georgia, June 27, 1864, at the age of twenty-seven years.
CAPTAIN WILLIAM STILLINGS, now residing in Gloucester City, was born in 1814, son of Jacob Stillings, a soldier of the Revolution. He was a soldier in the Seminole War in Florida, the Mexican War and the War for the Union. In 1838 he enlisted in the regular army and served in Florida under General Zachary Taylor. He was under General Scott when the Cherokee Indians were removed west of the Mississippi to Indian Territory. In 1846, with his command, he was sent to Mexico, placed under General Scott, and participated in the memorable battles on the triumphant march to the City of Mexico. In 1854 he retired from the army and returned, to Gloucester. In 1861 he was mustered into the service as a first lieutenant of Company K, Fourth Regiment New Jersey Volunteers, and at the expiration of his term of three months became a first lieutenant in the three years’ service. He was in the battles of West Point and Fair Oaks and at Gaines’ Mills was captured by the enemy, placed in Libby Prison forty-six days and then paroled. He joined his command, was promoted to captain, took part in the second battle of Bull Run and the battles of South Mountain and Antietam. After recovering from a wound received in battle he entered the navy as engineer and continued in that service until 1867.
SOURCE: Page(s) 86-89, History of Camden County, New Jersey, by George R. Prowell, L.J. Richards & Co. 1886
Published 2010 by the Camden County Genealogy Project