BURLINGTON CITY - The large fabric billboard proclaims in bold type: "JERSEYMEN! ONCE MORE TO THE RESCUE!"
Despite its frayed appearance, the sign's plea for veterans and newcomers to enlist in the Union Army seems as urgent today as it did in the 1860s. You can almost visualize the young men heading to Bordentown to sign up.
Tuesday marks the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War, in which Burlington County played a pivotal role. The county's historical significance will be recalled during a number of events to honor and remember the many people who responded to that plea.
The Burlington County Historical Society and county Historian Joseph M. Laufer are spearheading the effort. Lisa Fox-Pfeiffer, executive director of the historical society, unveiled the sign Tuesday as she prepared artifacts for display.
Among them was "camp art," including a decorated cane carved in wood and circular napkin rings that Guy Bryan III of Vincentown carved while a prisoner at the Libby Prison in Richmond, Va., from 1864 to 1865. The rings are made from ham, beef or horse bone - from "whatever they were feeding the soldiers," Fox-Pfeiffer explained.
Laufer already has launched a series of lectures at various locations throughout the county, using PowerPoint presentations to illustrate the county's role in the war.
On Saturday, at the Library Company of Burlington County on West Union Street in Burlington City, he will host a "historians' roundtable" from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., in which local historians are urged to present information they have gathered about "their community's contributions to the Civil War effort."
A May bus tour of county sites related to the war is already sold out.
"It sold out in three days," Laufer said, noting that the library is planning another tour for the fall.
On May 3, Law Day, the Burlington County Office Building on Rancocas Road will host "John Adams," as portrayed by Steven Perlman of the National Park Service. Adams, the nation's second president, will recount his personal and public anti-slavery stance in recognition of this year's sesquicentennial of the Civil War.
Among the county's most famous Civil War-era residents were nurse Clara Barton of Bordentown City, founder of the American Red Cross, and Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, who kept his wife, Julia, and children in a home on Wood Street in Burlington City from 1864 to 1865.
In his lecture, Laufer notes that the Grants declined an invitation to go to Ford's Theatre with President Abraham Lincoln on the night of his assassination.
Instead, they traveled to Burlington, where, legend has it, Grant received word of the president's death after he got off a train.
Several county towns played roles in the war's history. Foremost was Beverly. Ideally situated on the Delaware River near the train tracks to Camden, it became home to Camp Cadwallader for soldiers who enlisted.
From Beverly, they took steamboats or the train to Camden and then a ferry to Philadelphia, heading to the battlefields of the South, Laufer explained.
When the casualties started to mount, a three-story brick factory that served as a barracks at the camp was converted into a convalescent hospital in 1864. With 2,500 beds, it was one of the largest Civil War-era military hospitals outside the battlefield regions.
"Citizens of Beverly assembled at the wharf with any kind of conveyance to transport the wounded soldiers to the hospital," Laufer relates in his lectures. "As the journey began ... the church bells of the town tolled in welcome. Women lined the streets dispensing coffee and food."
The hospital burned down in 1872, but that did not end Beverly's role in the war. A national cemetery was established outside the town in what is now Edgewater Park.
Here, 147 Union soldiers are buried, among the more than 48,000 veterans now interred there.
The Vincentown section of Southampton is another site replete with Civil War history. The village will honor its sons who served in the war during the Memorial Day parade May 30.
They included Capt. Thomas Eayre, who died in the Battle of Spotsylvania in Virginia. A letter to his mother the week before his death is shown in Laufer's lecture. Eayre is buried at Friends Burial Ground in Vincentown, as is his brother, Capt. George Eayre, who also served in the Civil War.
Then there were the "Yahoos." These members of the 23rd New Jersey Regiment were young farm boys. Jeff Macechak, a historical society employee, said the derogatory name applied to the regiment by other soldiers came from the word for a bumpkin used in Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels."
However, the group, led by Edward Burd Grubb Jr. of Burlington City, soon distinguished itself at the Battle of Salem Church in Virginia in May 1863. A statue there now honors them.
"They were so untrained ... put right into battle. They ended up turning it around," Laufer said.
In July, at the Burlington County Farm Fair, the Springfield Township Historical Society and Laufer's Office of County Historian will set up a tent and provide lectures, exhibits, and re-enactments of the county's role in the Civil War.
"We are inviting local historical societies to offer information and exhibits," Laufer said.
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Other events on tap to mark start of war
In addition to Burlington County's activities, several other events are planned to mark the start of the Civil War.
Rutgers University in Camden will host a daylong conference at its law school on North Fifth Street to discuss constitutional issues raised by the Civil War on Tuesday from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.
"The Constitution and the Sectional Conflict" will commemorate the sesquicentennial of the War Between the States with a program that will address how the Constitution shaped and was shaped by the dispute over slavery.
The morning session will deal with the relationship between slavery and the framing of the Constitution.
The afternoon session will focus on constitutional issues that divided the North and South preceding the war. Several scholars from universities in the mid-Atlantic and South will participate.
Registration is free.
To register, contact Deborah Carr at email@example.com.
On Wednesday at 6:30 p.m., author Adam Goodheart will discuss his new book "1861: The Civil War Awakening." The lecture is sponsored by the law school in partnership with the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.
For information, visit .
The Civil War History Consortium of Greater Philadelphia is planning a parade Saturday at 10 a.m. that will begin at the National Constitution Center and end at Broad and Washington streets. The day's events will conclude with a Civil War-themed gala at the city's Union League.
For information, visit www.civilwarphilly.net/parade.
Also, the New Jersey State Museum in Trenton is hosting an exhibit of Civil War flags in the Department of State building at 225 W. State St. The exhibit is open daily from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.