Items

• USS Weehawken: Intrepid Civil War Monitor

  This undated paper by William Ray Heitzman of Villanova University was distributed by the Weehawken Historical Society. It describes the exploits of the Union monitor Weehawken. This item is in the collection of the Weehawken Historical Commission.
• Playbill - The Confederate Spy - St Lawrence Dramatic Society - 1900

  From the collection of the Weehawken Historic Commission, this playbill is for The Confederate Spy, a military drama in five acts, performed by the St. Lawrence Dramatic Society at St. Lawrence Hall in the Shades on Thursday and Friday evenings, November 29 and 30, 1900. The document includes a cast listing, a synopsis of the thrilling plot and a word from the sponsor, William Gulden Furniture, Carpets,Bedding, Etc. on Bergenline Avenue. William Gulden and his family lived on Hamilton Avenue in Weehawken from about 1910-1920.
• Recruiting Broadside - Calcium Light Regiment

  Recruiting broadside for a Civil War regiment which had a recruiting office in Palisade Gardens, Weehawken. The text of the broadside reads: The Best Regiment Yet! The Union of the States for the Sake of the Union. "Then Conquer we must, for our case it is just, and this be our motto: In God is our trust." The Calcium Light! Sharp-Shooters! This Regiment, under the command of Colonel Robert Grant Is now being organized for the United States Service by special order of the war department. The uniform, the pay and the rations are to be the same as in the regular army. The pay is $13 per month and $100 bounty upon honorable discharge at the end of the war. If the soldier is killed, this bounty of $100. together with his pay, due to that time is paid to his family, heirs, or assigns. The pay & rations commence from the date of enlistment. Clothing furnished immediately. Recruiting offices 400 Broome St. N.Y. Ninth Avenue between 42d & 43d Sts N.Y. Cor. Hudson & Canal Sts., N.Y. Edge Laboratory, Jersey City. 102 Fulton St. N.Y. Palisade Garden, Weehawken. Recruits Immediately forwarded to the camp of instruction at Scarsdale Regimental Headquarters, 400 Broome Street, New York Purcell & Dalton Steam Job Printers and engravers 428 Broome St. New York. As Company E of the 102nd New York, the Calcium Light Sharpshooters were recruited in New York City 1861 and served in a consolidated regiment that received its unit designation in March 1862. Known primarily as the Van Buren Light Infantry, the regiment saw its first hard action at Cedar Mountain, where 115 were killed, lost or wounded, with equally severe subsequent losses at Antietam, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg in the Eastern Theater. Transferred south in 1864, the 102nd participated in the Battle Above the Clouds, Missionary Ridge, Ringgold, Georgia, and was with Sherman throughout the Atlanta Campaign and the "March." The regiment got its name for its innovative use of very bright Calcium lights to allow its sharpshooters to better see their targets.
• Destruction of the Weehawken Ferry House

  Engraving from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper of August 1, 1863, showing participants in the New York Draft Riots of July 15th, 1863 burning down the New York terminal of the Weehawken ferry in an effort to stop Federal troops from entering the city. Submitted by Bob Schwartz
• Divine Service on the Deck of the Monitor Weehawken...

  Two black and white photographs of the Monitor "Weehawken", the Sunday before she was sunk in Charleston, South Carolina. The crew of the ship stands on the deck of this Civil War ironclad. The ship sank on December 6, 1863. Photograph taken by Sam A. Cooly, 10th Army Corps - Beaufort, SC.
• The Ericsson Devil and the Weehawken

  This engraving (first published in an 1863 edition of Harper's Weekly) shows the USS Weehawken, a Civil War armored ship, fitted with a new fangled device for the clearing of mines from the harbor of Charleston, SC.
• Telegram to President A Lincoln re Monitor Weehawken

  This telegram from Major General John Dix to President Abraham Lincoln regarding movements of Union Ironclad ships, including the USS Weehawken. Found by Bernie Zempolich.
• Journal of the Senate of the United States - Dec 17, 1863 - The Weehawken Sinks

  A resolution of the US Senate directing that it receives copies of all of the papers and reports regarding the sinking of the Union Monitor Weehawken. 
• USS Weehawken (1863-1863)

  This US Navy page has the complete, short history of the Union monitor USS Weehawken. The ship was launched in January 1863, saw combat that year and was lost in a storm in December of 1863, taking 30 officers and men to the briny deep. The page also includes links to nice engravings of the ship. Thanks to Bernie Zempolich for finding this gem and bringing it to the Time Machine!
• The Monitor Weehawken

  A brief history of the Civil War battleship Weehawken.
• Colonel Berdan and His Sharpshooters

  From Harper's Weekly - August 24, 1861... an article and two illustrations describing a shooting exhibition by a Colonel Berdan and "his famous sharp shooting regiment" at Weehawken. Click on the links for more information about Berdan and his Sharpshooters.
• The Weehawken's Fearful Accident

  An article by Dana M. Wegner on the sinking of the Civil War ironclad ship Weehawken - from Civil War Times Illustrated - December 1972.
• Engraving - The Civil War Monitor Weehawken

  Newspaper engraving of The Monitor Weehawken capturing the Confederate iron clad ram Atlanta, Warsaw Sound, GA, June 17, 1863.