Citizen Soldier: The Revolutionary War Journal of Joseph Bloomfield
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A new edition of the eyewitness account that introduced...)
A new edition of the eyewitness account that introduced readers to the experience of the Continental army
“About sunset we made a stand, when I was wounded, having a Ball with the Wad shot through my left forearm & the fuse set my coat and shirt on fire.” So wrote Major Joseph Bloomfield in his journal on September 11, 1777, describing his experiences during the hard-fought battle of Brandywine. Bloomfield was an officer in the 3rd New Jersey Regiment from 1776 to 1779. His service took him from Fort Stanwix to Fort Ticonderoga in New York, to the battle of Brandywine in Pennsylvania, and to the battle of Monmouth in his native state. He later served as governor of New Jersey from 1801 to 1812. A compassionate officer admired by his men, Bloomfield carefully recounted the hardships of military campaigns—the swings of morale, the shortage of supplies, the ever-present illnesses—and the intensity of combat. Of special interest are Bloomfield’s important notes on the culture and behavior of the Iroquois tribes known collectively as the Six Nations, which played a crucial role in revolutionary New York.
Unpublished and all but unknown when the first edition—skillfully edited by historians Mark Edward Lender and Joseph Kirby Martin—appeared, Bloomfield’s wartime journal was praised for providing both scholars and general readers with new information on the Continental soldier; the revolution’s impact on society; warfare in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania; and the motives and actions of the revolutionary generation. Soldiers and civilians, Patriots and Tories, come alive in this fascinating eyewitness narrative. This new edition of Citizen Soldier: The Revolutionary War Journal of Joseph Bloomfield—the first in thirty-five years—includes a new introduction and bibliographic essay by the editors.
(A longtime leader of the New Jersey Society for the Aboli...)
A longtime leader of the New Jersey Society for the Abolition of Slavery, and founder of Thomas Jefferson's Democratic-Republican Party in New Jersey, to this day General Joseph Bloomfield is regarded as Woodbridge, New Jersey's most illustrious citizen. The great-grandson of a founding family of the oldest chartered township in the state, Joseph Bloomfield was both a lawyer and soldier,but his elite background and Revolutionary War service quickly propelled him into political leadership, and in time he was elected governor.
As the narrative of Bloomfield's life unfolds, the reader steps back in time to trying political, religious and social issues faced by the founders of the State of New Jersey and the United States of America. Strongly influenced and driven to action by the religious enthusiasm of the Presbyterian Church and its political agenda based on rights, General Bloomfield served with distinction in George Washington's Flying Camp. During the course of the war he participated in the battles of Trenton,Princeton, Brandywine, Germantown and Monmouth, and endured harsh conditions at both Morristown and Valley Forge.
After a period of indecision, General Bloomfield emerged as one of a few genuine "landed aristocrats" in New Jersey who was willing to join the Jefferson cause, as opposed to the Federalist Party. As governor he used his moral and political leadership to initiate the gradual emancipation of slavery in New Jersey with his signing of the Gradual Emancipation Act of 1804. He later served with distinction in the War of 1812 and was twice elected to the United States House of Representatives.
Joseph Bloomfield was an American lawyer, statesman, politician. He was mayor of Burlington, New Jersey, from 1795 to 1800.
Background
Joseph Bloomfield was born on October 18, 1753, in Woodbridge, New Jersey, United States. He was descended from Thomas Bloomfield, major in Cromwell's army, who emigrated from Woodbridge, on the river Deben in Suffolk, by way of Massachusetts to Woodbridge on Woodbridge Creek, Middlesex County, New Jersey. His descendants were noted for public spirit and in 1796 certain rural settlements in Essex County, New Jersey, were named "Bloomfield" after his great-great-grandson. His father was Dr. Moses Bloomfield, a founder of the New Jersey Medical Society and a member of the colonial assembly and of the provincial congress, who freed fourteen slaves on July 4, 1783, to prove his belief in the Declaration of Independence. Joseph's mother was Sarah (Ogden) Bloomfield.
Education
Joseph Bloomfield was educated at the Rev. Enoch Green's Classical Academy in Deerfield Street, Cumberland County, whence he went to study law in the home and office of Cortlandt Skinner, the Colony's royalist attorney-general, at Perth Amboy.
Career
Admitted to the New Jersey bar November 12, 1774, Joseph Bloomfield prepared to practise law at Bridgeton but in 1775 was commissioned captain in Col. Elias Dayton's Regiment and took part in the Quebec expedition but got no further than the Mohawk Valley. As Gen. Schuyler's guard officer he brought the Declaration of Independence to Fort Stanwix, he became major and judge advocate of the northern army, and he fought at Monmouth and at Brandywine where he was wounded in the bridle arm. He resigned in 1778. Settling in Burlington, the old capital of West Jersey, in 1794 Bloomfield commanded an infantry brigade of New Jersey militia and took an active part in suppressing the Whiskey Rebellion without bloodshed. He was mayor of the town, 1795-1800, clerk of the state assembly for several years, register of the court of admiralty, and attorney-general of New Jersey, elected in 1783, re-elected in 1788, resigning in 1792 when he served as a presidential elector, opposing John Adams.
Changing his politics to Jeffersonism, Bloomfield was elected governor by the New Jersey legislature, 1801, over Richard Stockton. In 1802 a tie vote emptied the governor's chair, but Stockton withdrew after defeats in 1803 and 1804 so Bloomfield was returned unopposed until 1812. As governor he signed, 1804, the gradual emancipation act, amended 1846, which reduced the slave population of New Jersey from six per cent of the total in 1800 to eighteen individuals by 1860. He was a leader in the work of legal and gradual emancipation. The Bloomfield Compilation of New Jersey Laws, 1811, was named in his honor. As governor he was ex officio chancellor, but no record was made of his decisions though a few of his opinions were published much later.
In 1812 President Madison appointed Bloomfield brigadier general in the United States Army. He commanded the 3rd Military District, headquarters at New York, organized and trained new troops, marched to Plattsburgh with eight thousand men, and, later, put Philadelphia in a complete state of defence, largely by his own energy and money. His portrait in major-general's uniform, by W. H. Griffin, in the governor's office at Trenton, is a pleasing contrast to the dourness of other New Jersey patriots. Bruised by the upset of his gig while viewing lands near Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1823, he was badly bled by local doctors and died on reaching home.
(A longtime leader of the New Jersey Society for the Aboli...)
Politics
Joseph Bloomfield was a member of the Democratic-Republican; member of the U. S. House of Representatives from New Jersey's At-large district from 1817 to 1821.
Membership
Joseph Bloomfield was a member of the American Antiquarian Society, a founding members of the Society of the Cincinnati.
Personality
In manner Bloomfield was of the old school, wearing always the ruffles, powdered hair and cue of Washington's day. Neither war nor politics ruffled his benevolent, courteous, and sensible good nature. Accounts describe him as housed and served "in the style of a gentleman of fortune, " but he disliked his official title "Your Excellency. "
Connections
Joseph Bloomfield married on December 17, Mary, daughter of Dr. William McIlvaine of Burlington and Philadelphia. She died in 1818. His second wife was Isabella Ramsay. They had no children.