Since Veteran's Day is this week, I thought that I would post the pictures and the stories of some members of the 33rd New Jersey who made the ultimate sacrifice or were severely wounded in the service of our country. This is limited to those for whom a picture survives.
Captain Samuel F. Waldron was the commander of Company I of the 33rd New Jersey. He wrote a number of letters to the Newark Daily Journal (Newark's anti-war newspaper) under the pen name of "Miles Alienus." As the 33rd and other Union troops gathered in Lookout Valley near Chattanooga, he wrote that while things were quiet, "Certain it is one hundred and twenty thousand men are not massed here for nothing."
They certainly were not and on November 23, 1863, the 33rd was engaged for the first time at Citico Creek. This was the regiment's first combat experience and sadly Waldron was killed instantly by a bullet through the heart. When news of his death reached Newark, newspaper accounts indicated that he had a premonition of his death.
Waldron was a school teacher in the Newark public schools and had been an amateur actor. He had seen prior service with the 27th New Jersey and now left a widow and two young children. Appropriately the people of Newark raised money to help support his bereaved family. Waldron's body was returned to Newark for burial and his funeral took place on January 21, 1864, first at Trinity Church (now Trinity & St. Philip's Cathedral) with the burial at Fairmount Cemetery. In his honor the Newark public schools closed for the afternoon with teachers and students from his school (the Second Ward School) marching behind the hearse.
Captain Samuel F. Waldron was the commander of Company I of the 33rd New Jersey. He wrote a number of letters to the Newark Daily Journal (Newark's anti-war newspaper) under the pen name of "Miles Alienus." As the 33rd and other Union troops gathered in Lookout Valley near Chattanooga, he wrote that while things were quiet, "Certain it is one hundred and twenty thousand men are not massed here for nothing."
They certainly were not and on November 23, 1863, the 33rd was engaged for the first time at Citico Creek. This was the regiment's first combat experience and sadly Waldron was killed instantly by a bullet through the heart. When news of his death reached Newark, newspaper accounts indicated that he had a premonition of his death.
Waldron was a school teacher in the Newark public schools and had been an amateur actor. He had seen prior service with the 27th New Jersey and now left a widow and two young children. Appropriately the people of Newark raised money to help support his bereaved family. Waldron's body was returned to Newark for burial and his funeral took place on January 21, 1864, first at Trinity Church (now Trinity & St. Philip's Cathedral) with the burial at Fairmount Cemetery. In his honor the Newark public schools closed for the afternoon with teachers and students from his school (the Second Ward School) marching behind the hearse.
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