On March 14, 1862, the 9th New Jersey Volunteer Infantry Regiment had fought its second battle in New Bern, North Carolina. On April 1, 1862, Private Charles Hinton, of Belvidere, serving in Company K of the Jersey Ninth wrote in a letter to The Belvidere Intelligencer of his visit to New Bern after it was occupied by Federal troops.
Hinton wrote, "On the 29th (March), I went over to Newbern [sic] for the first time. We walked around the city and found it to be a very nice place, but we could not see many of the citizens, for there were none there - they had all left with the rebel army before we reached here. You can see soldiers, plenty of them - guards in all of the streets, and it is almost impossible to travel around Newbern without a pass. We went up to the depot and looked around there awhile. We could see plenty of shells lying around, which were prepared for us, and by the looks of things, I thought they intended to play a pretty good game of ball with us, but they must have forgotten to take their shells with them, or else they were in a big hurry. According to the stories of the contrabands, they were making tracks for Goldsborough as fast as possible, at which place they halted, and, I suppose, are getting ready for another brush; but General [Ambrose] Burnside intends going up to see them in a few days, and the sight of General Burnside is enough to start them on a double-quick at any time. They will soon have to leave North Carolina for, before another month, the Stars and Stripes will be waving in every town in the State. There will be no harbor for them here, for soon we will have the First New Jersey Brigade here.
"The Belvidere boys, I believe, are all doing well. I seen Father Matthews, Jacob Myers, John Van Norman, and Edward Clayton yesterday, and they were all in fine spirits. Nelson Cramer is now in Newbern helping to bake bread for our Regiment."
Copyright 1997-2012: Jay C. Richards
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