The Kid Corporal of the Monocacy Regiment

By John Lund

A historical account on the experiences and exploits of an underage farm boy who enlisted with the 14th NJ Volunteer Infantry during the American Civil War. Charles Anthony Haggerty, a volunteer recruit who rose from the ranks and at the age of 17 became a corporal of his unit. He outlasted many battles until the end of the war and was able to reunite with his family back in Perth Amboy, New Jersey. Full of historical facts, this book definitely brings a sense of history and patriotism among readers regarding a civil war that divided a nation many years ago.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 3, 2012
• ISBN: 9781469131634

John Lund

John Lund is a Senior Researcher in the Danish National Museum, who has studied the finds from Kristian Jeppesen’s excavations at the Maussolleion of Halikarnassos intermittently since 1999. The wider implications – economic and otherwise – of Hellenistic and Roman ceramics from the Eastern Mediterranean are central to his research interests.

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Copyright © 2012 by John Lund.

Library of Congress Control Number:       2011961890

ISBN:         Hardcover                               978-1-4691-3162-7

                   Softcover                                 978-1-4691-3161-0

                   Ebook                                      978-1-4691-3163-4

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

Cover Photo: Postwar photo of Charles A. Haggerty

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This book is lovingly dedicated to the memory of my father Robert M. Lund

Charles Anthony Haggerty was born on March 18, 1847, in Rahway, New Jersey. He was a normal child that grew up in one of the most abnormal times in our nation’s history. Our young nation had divided and ultimately headed to war by the time he was a teen. His father John H. Haggerty, an Irish immigrant, was a barge captain in the nearby bustling port of Perth Amboy, New Jersey where they soon relocated. Moving both people and goods to and from nearby Ney York City and along the Atlantic seaboard kept John away from home for long periods of time. As an only child, Charles would be raised almost solely by his mother Eliza.

By age twelve Charles would be farmed out by his struggling parents. John and Eliza had leased land and had accrued quite a debt to local farmer Smith Wilson. A seamstress and a barge captain could not afford to repay him, so off went young Charles to work off the debt.

Farmer Wilson would send little Chas, and the other farmed out hands to School no. 18 in Bonhamtown by day and have them work the fields in the afternoon and evenings. At night, they would have to sleep in makeshift housing… a smelly barn (with the animals). It was not a pleasant place to be for such young boys.

Charles, being a literate child could only read to the others about the battles happening in faraway places like Virginia. He would tell his friends Sammy and George how he would one day take part in squashing the rebellion and return home a hero. Charles, Samuel Martin and George Martin had never even ventured out of their county never mind left the state of New Jersey. What an adventure could be had.

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In the summer of 1862, President Lincoln, realizing that this Civil War was not going to be over anytime soon, with the ineptness of the generals he had overseen for the past two years, made a call for more volunteer troops. He asked to raise three hundred thousand men, and the patriots of the Union would oblige. Charles had his chance. Tired of life on the farm, and sleeping in a barn, he said goodbye and ran off to enlist. Being only fifteen years of age, he would write the number eighteen on the bottom of his shoes so that when he was sworn in he could swear he was over eighteen.

In Union and Middlesex counties of New Jersey, James L. Bodwell, a former quartermaster sergeant with the 3rd NJ State Militia, would round up roughly one hundred men for a three-year enlistment (or sooner upon war’s end). These men would eventually make up Company E of the 14th New Jersey Volunteer Infantry.

On August 26, 1862, the 14th NJ would officially be mustered into the United States Army on the old battlefield of Monmouth (Revolutionary War) outside Freehold, New Jersey. The camp would soon be named Camp Vredenburgh after prominent local lawyer, Peter Vredenburgh. Vredenburgh’s son would soon enlist and be commissioned Major.

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The 14th’s men were from Trenton, Elizabeth, and rural areas such as Monmouth, Ocean, and Middlesex counties and were as diverse as their hometowns. Enlistment paper prior occupations included: farmer, laborer, carpenter, blacksmith, carriage maker, shoemaker, sailor, clerk, school teacher, dentist, oysterman, boatman, watchmaker, farrier, and student of law. Five hundred ninety were between the ages of twenty and twenty-nine, two hundred and seven of which were illiterate, and ninety were from foreign countries including Ireland, England, and Germany.

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Drawing by Dr. David Martin

Beyond their fatigue uniforms, each soldier was issued a Sibley tent and a tick they could fill with straw to sleep on. Each tent would hold sixteen men with six tents to a company. There were ten companies in the 14th, and for organizational reasons at Camp Vredenburgh,