WAR OF 1812
 [From Warren History, Volume One, No. 8, Fall 1992]

For most Americans today the War of l812 conjures up fuzzy images of Captain James Lawrence's famous cry, "Don't give up the ship!" or the British bombardment of Ft. McHenry that so inspired Francis Scott Key.

New Jersey's role in that embarrassing mini-conflict with Great Britain is even hazier, if remembered at all. In fact, an estimated 6,000 men from New Jersey served in the ranks of the army, navy and militia, rendering valuable if unheralded service. Hundreds died.

New Jerseyans were of two minds about the conflict. Less than five months after war had been declared, the State Assembly, where a strong peace party held sway, denounced the war as "inexpedient, ill timed and most dangerously impolitic." Most citizens, however, supported the war effort even if lukewarmly: Before the war ended, thousands of militiamen had been trained and posted along the Jersey coast; the l5th U.S. Infantry, raised in New Jersey, saw hard combat in Canada; and Governor Joseph Bloomfield led 8,000 troops, many from the state, to Plattsburgh to help ward off a threatened British invasion.

Warren's role in the war is obscure but not completely unknown, thanks in part to the chance discovery nearly l00 years ago of a tattered document among the papers of Peter Wooden, who died in l895. On January 18, l895, the Bound Brook Chronicle reported his death: "Peter Wooden, one of the oldest inhabitants of Somerset County died on Monday in North Plainfield. He was born May 14, l800. His father was Ezra Wooden. He has always resided in this vicinity; his birthplace was near where he died." Then on November 29, l895, the Chronicle added that Wooden's attorney had found a paper among his late client's effects that read as follows: "We the subscribers being inhabitants and residents of the County of Somerset in the State of New Jersey, being above the age of 45 years. do voluntarily engage ourselves to form a company to defend the State against our enemies whomever they may be in this State. In witness whereof we the subscribers our names inscribe on the l3th day of October l812 - 
    Jacob Smalley*      Gideon Allen*     John Curtis*
    David Stewart*      David Smalley*    Samuel Yard
    Ruben Dunn*         Ezra Wooden*      Benjamin Moore*
    Parkhurst Cory,     Joseph Tingley*   Isaac Moore*
         Sutler*
    Daniel Maxwell      Revere Mosher*    Elias Kirkpatrick*
    William E. Harris*  David Allen*      Jacob Tingley*
    Isaac Manning*      Samuel Pope*      Isaac Smalley*
    Andrew Drake*       Samuel Pangborn*  John Taylor
    Daniel Southlon*    Jonathan Drake*   Benjamin Littell
    George Townley*     David French*     Ephraim Tucker*
    Ben. Cremmor        James Marshall*   Moses Miller*
    John Cory*          Dugal Ayres*      Archibald Barth
The Chronicle claimed that the over-age men who signed the militia list were all residents of Green Brook and North Plainfield, but in fact they were from throughout Warren Township. The asterisked names appear on Warren-related documents of the period and the others probably lived here or in the immediate vicinity. In Ezra Wooden's list we have a township-wide roster of patriots who, too old to volunteer for regular duty, pledged their support nonetheless to their nation's cause.

In addition, at least nine men from Warren Township were on active duty during the conflict, and one, and perhaps two, died in service. A muster roll of Captain John Logan's company of Somerset County infantry, N.J. Detailed Militia, which served under Col. John Frelinghuysen from September 12, l814, to December 9, l814, lists six men from Warren: William Titus, sergeant, David Harris, corporal, and Isaac Bird, Israel Ralph, Levi Ruckman and Nathan Smalley, privates. Six others in the company - Daniel Ayres, John Eoff, Asa French, James Lyon, Clarkson Manning and Isaac Stewart - bear surnames common to Warren Township and may have been from here. Ralph, who was born in l796, enlisted at age 18, which will give some idea of the age of Somerset's infantrymen.

Three other men from Warren enlisted in the Third Artillery Regiment, United States Army. Isaac Wilson enlisted as a private "at Warren, N.J." in Capt. James H. Boyle's company, 3rd Artillery, on June 2, 1812, for five years. He was transferred to Capt. Roger Jones' company, Corps of Artillery, on June 10, 1815, and deserted July 7, 1815. Richard Roff (Ralph) was a private in Capt. Benjamin S. Ogden's company, 3rd Artillery, enlisting "at Stony Hill" on February 15, 1813. He was discharged at Fort Niagara, N.Y., on August 15, 1813, due to "old age and rupture." Moses Roff (probably Richard's son, possibly his brother) enlisted in the same outfit on April 15, l812, for five years. He was "killed in the service by accident" at Fort Niagara on June 30, 1812.

Moses Roff, the sixth child of Richard Roff, married Elizabeth Ludlow on September 25, 1806, and lived near Mount Bethel. He left four children, Deborah, Phoebe, Maria and Jonathan, all of whom received pensions under the Act of 1816. Jeremiah Giddes, who died on October 30, 1812, leaving five children, may have been from Warren Township as well.

Still another veteran of the War of 1812 living in Warren was Elam Genung, who enlisted at Madison in a rifle company when he was 18. He moved here some years after the war and was an influential figure in Union Village.

[Ref: Littell, First Settlers of Passaic Valley; Somerset Co. Hist. Soc., for Chronicle article; military service record, Moses Roff, National Archives; Records of Officers and Men in Wars 1791-1815; War of l812 military records, N.J. State Archives for Capt. Logan's co.; Som. Co. Hist. Quarterly, Vol. 5, p. 46]