Unit History

The Eighth Regiment was organized under the provisions of an Act of Congress, approved July 22, 1861, as set forth in an official letter from the President of the United States, dated Washington, D. C., July 24, 1861, and from War Department, Washington, D. C., dated July 29, 1861. The Regiment was fully organized, officered and equipped by the 14th day of September, at which time it was duly mustered into the service of the United States, for three years, at Camp Olden, Trenton, N. J., by Charles H. Brightly, First Lieutenant Fourth Infantry, U. S. Army. It left the State, October 1, 1861, with a full complement of men. Officers, 38; Non-Commissioned Officers and Privates, 851. Total, 889.

Upon arrival at Washington, the Regiment went into Camp at Meridian Hill, D. C., and there remained until the early part of December, 1861, at which time, in connection with the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Regiments, they were ordered to report under command of Colonel Samuel H. Starr, Fifth Regiment, (the senior officer,) to General Joseph Hooker, U. S. Volunteers, near Budd's Ferry, Md., where they were brigaded and designated the Third Brigade, Hooker's Division.

Under the provisions of General Orders, No. 191, War Department, Adjutant General's Office Washington, D. C., June 25, 1863, a large number of the enlisted men re-enlisted in the field, for three years, or during the war. Those who did not re-enlist and whose term of service having expired, reported by order at Trenton, N. J., and were mustered out by James W. Long, Captain Second Infantry, U. S. Army, September 21, 1864. Those who remained were consolidated into and were known as the Eighth Battalion, and so remained until the 12th of October, 1864, at which time the Sixth Battalion was joined to it by transfer. The command was then re organized and resumed its regimental organization.

At different times during the years 1864 and 1865 the strength of the Regiment was augmented by the joining from Draft Rendezvous, Trenton, N. J., of large numbers of substitutes. Under the provisions of Special Orders, No. 194, Par. 45, War Department, Adjutant General's Office, Washington, D. C., April 29, 1865, all unassigned recruits and substitutes on duty with the Regiment, were organized into a Company, and were designated Company K.

The Regiment continued its organization until the close of the war, and those coming under the provisions of General Orders, No. 26, Head Quarters Army of the Potomac, dated May 17, 1865, were discharged at Washington, D. C., June 4, 1865, the remainder were mustered out of service near Washington, D. C., July 17, 1865, by Timothy W. Kelly, Captain 164th Regiment Infantry, New York Volunteers, Assistant Commissary of Musters, Second Division, Provisional Corps, Army of the Potomac, in compliance with orders from War Department, Adjutant General's Office, Washington, D. C., July 7, 1865.

This Regiment constituted one of the Four Regiments composing what was generally known as the Second Brigade, New Jersey Volunteers, and was first attached to the Third Brigade, Hooker's Division; afterward to the Third Brigade, Second Division, Third Corps; then to the First Brigade, Fourth Division, Second Corps; then to the Third Brigade, Third Division, Second Corps; and at the close of the war was attached to what was known as the Provisional Corps, Army of the Potomac.