May 16, 1862, aboard a southbound troop train somewhere in Delaware It seems the General of the whole Army, George McClellan, has marched our Army up a peninsula in Virginia from Chesapeake Bay, and is knocking on the door of the Reb capital at Richmond. Only thing is now he realizes he can't capture Richmond without the help of some Jersey boys. So we're being rushed to the front. Just yesterday morning we were still in Mt. Holly. Now in less than 24 hours I'm over fifty miles from home and getting further away by the minute. It's saddening because I don't know when I'll ever get to come home again. The movement from Mt. Holly to Burlington was a grand sight! We were all lined up in parade formation with flags a flying, officers on horseback, artillery pieces limbered up, bugles a blaring and drums a beating. Our company, C company, was about halfway back in the formation. We was lined up four across and there must have been close to a hundred lines. Each squad has about ten men and a sergeant or a corporal in it. Our squad has eleven men and Sergeant Sterling so we fit perfectly in the formation as three lines. Me and Homer were in the second line. I marched right behind Sergeant Sterling. The whole time I was scared I was going to get out of step and trod on the heel of his boots, but I didn't. Everybody in the squad wanted to do well for Sergeant Sterling. When we got to the Burlington waterfront we fell out and they let us sit on the grass around St. Mary's School for Girls. The Sergeant came over and said we didn't do too bad for a bunch of farmers. That was quite a compliment coming from old, we figure he's about 29, Sergeant Sterling. When we marched away from the fairgrounds there were people lined up on both sides of the Burlington Pike. They was cheering and waving little flags and hollering things like, "go get 'em boys", and "don't worry you'll be back in just a couple a weeks". It made everybody feel really good. They was lined up that way for almost the whole first mile out to Woods Lane. After that there was small groups here and there as we passed some of the farms. There was four fellas, I think they was sergeants, on horseback out a ways in front of the whole formation clearing the road for us. The Irick Road meets the Burlington Pike about three miles from the Fairgrounds. When we got there there was a group of people, most of them were folks I knew from Rancocas, and right out in front of all of them was Ma and Pa. It was a real proud moment for me. Ma was standing real close to the edge of the road and when I marched by she reached out and touched my left hand and blew me a kiss. She wasn't crying but her eyes looked kind of red and puffy. Pa stood at attention and saluted me the way I had shown him they taught us to do when I was home. I had big old tears running down my face and I really didn't care if anyone saw them or not. I was leaving my home and people I loved very much and no matter what happened from this point on this place and those people would never be the same again. I wondered if anyone else was beginning to fell just a little bit scared. I don't remember much about the next four miles. The next thing I knew we were at the top of Springside Hill starting to march down into Burlington on High Street which is the main street. People were lined up on both sides of the street here just like they'd been in Mt. Holly. I didn't even think that many people lived in Burlington. The top of Springside Hill is called Five Points because five roads, the Burlington Pike, High Street, Rancocas Road (which goes out to where I live), Fountain's Woods Road, and Russell's Farm Lane all meet there. Except for the Burlington Pike and High Street, which we was marching on, these roads was packed solid with people, horses, wagons, and carriages. Everyone was dressed up like it was a meeting day. They was cheering and waving, it sounded like every church in town was ringing there bells, and we could hear the whistles on the steamers at the warf blowing too. That last mile down High Street to the waterfront was real inspiring and is where we probably did our best marching. When we got to the waterfront they turned us left onto West Pearl Street and marched us the half mile out to the girls' school. They had mess tents set up on the school grounds and had a meal ready for us. The people from town walked amongst us while we was eating. They stopped to say "hi" and wished us well and gave us words of encouragement. The local politicians made some speeches, and the pastors from the local churches led us in prayer. It was a right friendly time. Sergeant Sterling told us that we weren't going to be spending the night in Burlington like we originally thought. They were going to load us onto the steamers and move us to Philadelphia today! He said with any luck we'd be in Philadelphia before dark. About 2:00 in the afternoon they formed us up again and marched us back down Pearl Street to High Street. This time we turned left onto High Street and marched down to the warf where there were two steam boats, tied up one behind the other, waiting to take us to Philadelphia. We were the last company to board the first boat in line. By 5:00 everybody was loaded and we were ready to begin our trip. The riverbank was packed with people who had come to see us off. It was really exciting for me. The two boats were both sidewheelers which means they had the big paddle wheels that made them go mounted on the side. These boats regularly made the trip between Philadelphia and Burlington carrying people, livestock, and trade goods. They weren't often used to move armies. The names of the boats were painted on the paddle wheel covers. I could see that the name of the second boat was "Fulton". I happend to know that he was the fellow who figured out how to get steam engines to move things like trains and boats and even some farm equipment. The boat I was on was named the "Franklin". It was named for Benjamin Franklin who was one of our founding fathers and had helped write the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. It was interesting that I should be going from Burlington to Philadelphia on a boat named for Mr. Franklin. Before moving to Philadelphia Benjamin Franklin had lived in Burlington. In fact he had his first print shop there on the corner of West Pearl Street and High Street. He left Burlington for Philadelphia and went on to become a famous man -- would the same thing happen to me? The trip down the river was something never to be forgotten. Spring was in full bloom along the riverbanks and the sights and smells were lovely. People would wave to us from the banks as we passed the towns along the river like Beverly, Riverside, and Palmyra. We found out later that the trip wasn't as pleasant for our comrads in the second boat. Seems all the steam and cinders from the funnels of our boat was blowing back on them. They wasn't none too happy about it but those of us on the Franklin got a good laught out of it. I figure we covered the fifteen or so miles to Philadelphia in about three hours. There was no wind and we had an outgoing tide which helped. It was just getting dark and starting to rain when the boats tied up to the piers. Because of the rain and the darkness I couldn't see anything of the city. But, it had an odor and made noises that were strange and exciting. I hoped that in the morning I would at least get to see some of it. They took us off the boats and we filed into a huge warehouse that was right at the end of the pier. Soon as I walked into the warehouse I knew that it was normally used to store fruit. There was no fruit in it now, but the smell of the rotting fruit that had been here before us was over powering. Just the same we were all glad to be out of the rain, which by the time we all got unloaded was coming down pretty hard and was now accompanied by lightning and thunder. There were huge oil lamps hanging from the beams in the roof and hanging on the walls of the warehouse. It wasn't like daylight but there was enought light so that you could move around. They had a meal ready for us just like they'd had at Burlington. In fact it was the exact same meal; boiled chicken, pea soup, and bread. Just the same we were glad to get it. Each company was assigned a specific area of the warehouse to bed down in. We were assigned area B4 which was pretty close to the middle of the warehouse. There were huge doors at each end of the warehouse, these were left open and there was a pleasant breeze blowing through. At about 11:00 that night a bugler walked to the center of the warehouse and blew retreat. All the oil lamps were put out, except for a small one by each of the doors, and we settled in for the night. Troops from the local militia patrolled the outside of the warehouse and guarded the doors throughout the night. At about 5:00 the next morning we were awakened by the same bugler blowing reville, which is really loud when it's blown inside a warehouse. By 6:00 we were standing in line to get coffee and biscuits. We were sitting in our area enjoying our coffee and biscuits when our Company Commander, Captain Byron Campbell, appeared. Captain Campbell was from Camden where his family owns some sort of food processing company. He's a volunteer just like us. He seemed like a real descent man. We all started to get up but he told us to remain seated and continue drinking our coffee and eating our biscuits. He told us that shortly we would be forming up and marching to the railroad station where we would be boarding a train. The train would be taking us to an encampment just outside of Baltimore, Maryland. There we would drill and train for several more weeks to make sure that we were truly ready not only to fight, but to win battles. After our training we would be moved to the front to join the rest of the regiment. He asked if there were any questions. One of the fellas said that he thought that the 350 or so of us here was the regiment. Captain Campbell said that the 5th NJ is a regiment that is already in the field but that it has lost over 150 of its men due to casualties and men being musterd out when their enlistments have ended. We will bring the 5th NJ back up to strength. At about 8:00 they formed us up the same way we had been formed up yesterday in Mt. Holly and we began the two mile march through the center of the city to the train station. I was really excited about seeing the city. I just wished I'd had time to wander the streets and really see it. Within the first half mile of the march we passed a building that had a cupola on the top and looked like it could have been a school or some sort of meeting house. There was a guard at the door so then I figured it must be a military headquarters or something. Later I found out that that building was where the Declaration of Independence was signed, where the Constitution had been written, and where the Continental Congress had met! We marched right down the center of Market Street. There were huge buildings everywhere and nowhere left to build anymore. There were more people within that two mile march than I had ever seen before. We marched around a building, we found out later was City Hall, that was so tall it made me dizzy to look up at it. There were smells that I recognized as bad smells and smells that I recognized as good smells, but they were all mixed together. There were noises like people yelling, children playing, horses winnying and snorting, bells ringing, steam whistles blowing, and dogs barking. The noises never stopped and they were all running together and yet they were all seperate. Philadelphia was an exciting adventure and that noise was calling my name. I resolved right then and there to survive this war just so I could come back to this city and learn all of its secrets. Before I realized what was happening we were being loaded onto the train. We were not being loaded onto a passenger train though, we were being loaded into freight cars! As we were being loaded we were handed a piece of salt pork, hardtack biscuits, and told to fill our canteens with water from a nearby trough. The rumor was that we would not be fed again until the next morning when we arrived at the encampment outside of Baltimore. We would be on the train for eight hours, there were about thirty men in each car, and we would not be allowed off at any off the stops it would make. I felt silly doing so but I asked about... you know, ... necessary things. I was shown two buckets, one at each end of the car, I was told that after you used the bucket you tossed its contents out the door of the freight car. I must have looked uneasy because the soldier who had told me this said, "Don't worry farmer, General McClellan uses a bucket too, only thing is someone else dumps it for him.". his made me laugh and I figured we were all in this together, buckets and all. Well, the train finally got rolling at about 11:00. It's now a little after 1:00 and we just passed through Wilmington, Delaware, a little bit ago. I have tried everything I know but cannot get comfortable on this train. The other fellas seem to be adjusting to the bumping, jerking, and jolting better than me. Some of them are playing cards, some are just sitting around talking, and some are even managing to sleep. Homer fell asleep before the train started to move and has been sleeping ever since. I've drank a little bit of my water but haven't eaten any of my biscuits or salt pork yet. I want to wait until later just in case it's true that we aren't going to get to eat again until after we get to the encampment tomorrow. Also, I don't want to have to use the buckets. None of us have been able to bathe or shave since the day before we left Mt. Holly. Thirty men jammed together in a freight car in May can begin to ripen. We leave the door open most of the time but we have to close it sometimes because of the smoke and cinders blowing in from the engine. Well, I'm going to try and get some sleep. We should only be on the train for another five hours or so. I'd have preferred walking to Baltimore to this train.