View complete article and references at Commemorative Landscapes of North Carolina at: https://docsouth.unc.edu/commland/monument/416

Description: This Civil War monument commemorates the Union Army service of New Jersey's 9th Regiment of Volunteer Infantry who were fallen near New Bern or buried in the cemetery. The 6-foot tall bronze statue depicts the figure of a Union common soldier, an infantryman, standing at parade rest. The statue stands on a short granite pedestal capping the large granite plinth and bearing a bas-relief carving of the Coat of Arms of the State of New Jersey. The plinth is engraved on four sides. The total height of the structure is approximately 16 feet.

Images: Historic postcard image of the monument | Historic postcard image of the monument

Inscription:
Front: THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY / ERECTS THIS MONUMENT / IN HONOR OF HER 9TH REG™T. / VOLUNTEER INFANTRY, / WHOSE HEROIC DEAD LIE / BURIED IN THIS CEMETERY. / 1861 - 1865 / ERECTED 1905.

Rear: MUSTERED IN, OCTOBER, 1861 / MUSTERED OUT, JULY 1865 / TOTAL ENLISTMENTS 2701

Right: PORT WALTHALL, / DREWRY™S BLUFF, / COLD HARBOR, / PETERSBURG.

Left: ROANOKE ISLAND, / NEW BERNE, / FORT MACON, / KINSTON, / GOLDSBORO.

Dedication date: 5/18/1905

Creator: M. C. Lyons' Sons, Camden, N.J., Unspecified

Materials & Techniques: Dark Barre granite

Sponsor: State of New Jersey

Cost: $5000

Unveiling & Dedication: Escorted by Commander J. J Wolfenden, the state of North Carolina provided transportation to the unveiling for about 100 veterans from the 9th Regiment and their guests. The ceremony occurred under pleasant weather conditions with a crowd of about five thousand. North Carolina Governor Glenn attended with his staff and made an address. A banquet was given for veterans, and their female guests were given a reception simultaneously by the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

Speeches addressed the common bond of the two states, together part of the original thirteen states that "threw off the yoke of British oppression." The speeches reflected the sentiment that differences were no longer important, but rather the heroism and courage of American soldiers on both sides fighting for what they believed.

The occasion was also marked by the return to North Carolina of the Beaufort Plowboys' Flag which was taken by New Jersey soldiers during battle. Governor Glenn was presented with the flag during a reception for the New Jersey veterans and visitors the evening before the unveiling. During the evening of the 18th, Governor Glenn in turn presented the flag to Mrs. E. N. Joyner of Columbia, South Carolina. Forty years earlier, Mrs. Joyner, then Miss Mary Winfield, had helped create the flag and had given it to the Beaufort Plowboys (Report of State Commission, p. 89).

The Report of the New Jersey State Commission for the erection of the monument described the spirit of goodwill and service extended to the visitors from New Jersey: "With true Southern courtesy, Governor Glenn immediately accepted the invitation, and moreover, threw himself heart and soul into the visit of New Jersey's representatives to his State. As soldiers of the Northern Army during the great civil conflict, the members of the Commission will ever bear in grateful memory the delightful correspondence ensuing between them and this big-hearted Governor of a Southern State; and the whole-souled hospitality he extended the Ninth Regiment and their guests while in North Carolina will never be forgotten by any member of the party" (p. 36).

A few days following the event, the New Bern Daily Journal ran a story under the title "The New Jersey Invasion of New Bern." Contrasting this 1905 "invasion" by visitors from New Jersey with the invasion during the war, the paper indicated local sentiment that concurred with that of the New Jersey monument commission: "But this city and its people were the most concerned in the invasion, of the men once foes, now friends, and through this last meeting, even a stronger feeling than friendship might be said to have developed and ripened. . .the living grasped hands in fraternal sympathy, and turning from the graves this brotherly feeling grew until the parting seemed more like that of members of a single household than of the people of two States."

Subject notes: The monument was erected in memory of the eighty fallen 9th Regiment soldiers who would be buried in what became the New Bern National Cemetery. The infantry served from October 1861 to July 1865 and was the first regiment to have combat casualties in the Civil War. The bulk of their time was spent fighting in North Carolina. The 9th would lose 10 officers and 244 enlisted men in the war.

New Bern National Cemetery was established in 1867. Union dead buried at other locations in North Carolina were subsequently moved to the National Cemetery following its establishment. The New Jersey Monument at New Bern is one of four monuments sponsored by Union states that sent soldiers to North Carolina during the Civil War. The Rhode Island Monument, the Massachusetts Monument, and the Connecticut Monument are all located in the cemetery.

Location: The monument is located in the southeastern corner of section 12 on the north side of the drive through the cemetery. It sits several feet from the drive which is reached off National Avenue.

Landscape: The monument sits in the grass covered grounds of the cemetery surrounded by rows of small white grave markers.

City: New Bern

County: Craven

Subjects: Civil War