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Historian Remembers Jersey's Forgotten Warriors

Joseph G. Bilby will host a discussion at the Monmouth County Library about the role of New Jersey's African-American soldiers in the Civil War.

As part of the month long celebration of Black History Month, the Monmouth County Library’s Eastern Branch in Shrewsbury is presenting a discussion with historian and author, Joseph G. Bilby about the role Jersey’s African-American men played in fighting the Civil War. 

The event takes place on Sunday at 2pm.

The role of African American soldiers in the war was finally and triumphantly realized in the 1989 film, Glory.  That war drama told the story of the 54th Massachusetts regiment, one of the first formal units of the United States Army to be made up entirely of African American men. And while the film supports the notion that there were other units of color fighting for the “Army of the Potomac,” the shadow the 54th projects, particularly since the release of the film, obscures the duty served by other soldiers of color in the Civil War.

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Enter Bilby. Himself a veteran, Bilby, has taken his passion for history and made it a preoccupation to bring overlooked historical detail into focus. In the case of black New Jersey’s role in the Civil War, Bilby felt a sense of duty to cipher through archives to repay the debt our nation and state owes to its Civil War soldiers of color. 

Bilby’s has penned two books on the subject. His first effort, Forgotten Warriors, published in 1992, was more of a pamphlet than a book. Using additional information he gathered, some found at the New Jersey State Archive and Historical Society of Newark, Bilby expanded his original effort into a second, more fully researched retelling, Freedom for All.

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For the record, some 3,000 Jersey men of color fought in the war. Six hundred and seventy one out of 900 soldiers in the 22nd regiment were from the state of New Jersey and “that particular regiment,” Bilby said, “had a really good reputation.” 

Bilby asserted that the 22nd had as good a reputation as the 54th, but just wasn’t chronicled in the press as much and therefore didn’t find its way into bold-faced footnotes. Still the 22nd was effective in battle and holds distinction off the battlefield as well. This black regiment marched in Lincoln’s funeral procession and engaged in the hunt for assassin John Wilkes Booth. These stories and more will be told and discussed as part of Bilby’s presentation.

Bilby’s Civil War CV includes his role as columnist for the Civil War News and publications editor for the New Jersey Civil War Sesquicentennial Committee. He is the author of more than 200 articles on history and outdoor subjects and has served as a consultant for several television programs on the Civil War.

Bilby said history, particularly military history, has always been of interest to him.

“Where and when I grew up everyone’s father in the neighborhood had all served in World War II,” Bilby said. “So, I got into that and later I got into the Civil War during the year of the Civil War Centennial.” 

Bilby studied history in college and received a Masters degree in history as well. It was while researching and writing his Master’s thesis that Bilby first became engaged in the subject of soldiers of color.

“My thesis was about drafting and recruiting in New Jersey, so I found a large amount of information about black soldiers. It was actually all there, just never really brought out. Years later, after I had published a book, I thought this is something that should be published to get it out there so the public knows,” Bilby said.

Currently Bilby is working on a new book, titled New Jersey’s Civil War Stories. This new work will be ever more representational, telling more than just the stories of military life, expanding to recall the lives of civilians, nurses, politicians, etc.

For more information on this and other Monmouth County Library programs, please call Library Headquarters at 732-431-7220 or the Eastern Branch Library at 1-866-941-8188 or visit them on the web at: www.monmouthcountylib.org.

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