Veterans committee head meets with senior club.
By: Lea Kahn
For more than 300 years, Lawrence Township has contributed its fair share of men to fight and protect the British colony of West Jersey, the American State of New Jersey and the United States of America.
That’s the message that was delivered to more than 40 members of Senior Citizens Club 5 by township resident Nicholas Loveless on Tuesday night. Mr. Loveless heads the Lawrence Township Veterans Memorial Committee.
The names of the nearly 1,000 township residents who saw military service from the American Revolutionary War through the present Iraqi conflict are listed on a series of plaques in the Municipal Building. The names include those who were killed in battle and those who survived to return home to their families.
As early as 1668, Colonial lawmakers authorized the formation of the Colonial militia the forerunner of today’s New Jersey Army National Guard, Mr. Loveless said. The lawmakers required every male between 16 and 60 to serve in the militia and to provide their own guns and ammunition.
Shortly after the battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775, the Provincial Congress authorized the formation of a State Militia, he said. Many Lawrence Township men served in the state militia and in the Continental Army, he added.
Three of the most important battles of the American Revolutionary War the first and second battles of Trenton and the Battle of Princeton were fought near Lawrence, Mr. Loveless said. Lawrence Township played a significant role in the Second Battle of Trenton, he said.
Gen. George Washington sent Col. Edward Hand and his Pennsylvania riflemen to Lawrence or Maidenhead, as it was then known to delay the British troops on their way to Trenton Jan. 2, 1777, Mr. Loveless said.
The Americans engaged the British troops in several skirmishes in Lawrence along today’s Route 206, which was known then as the King’s Highway. Keeping the British troops at bay allowed Gen. Washington and his troops enough time to escape Trenton and march to Princeton, where they defeated the British garrison staged there.
The Second Battle of Trenton was crucial, Mr. Loveless said. If the British troops had arrived in time to capture Gen. Washington and his army, "we would be speaking British and not American," he said, as the audience of senior citizens chuckled.
In the 1770s, Lawrence Township was a farming community of about 500 citizens. About 50 township residents served in the state militia or the Continental Army, he said. Nine of those soldiers are buried in the cemetery belonging to the Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceville, he said.
Lawrence Township residents also took part in the Civil War in the 1860s, said Mr. Loveless, whose great-grandfather, Nathan Loveless, was among those who signed up. Nathan Loveless was among the 107 township residents who served, he said.
The first Lawrence resident to enlist was Jacob Hunt, who signed up after the Southerners fired on Fort Sumter in Charleston, S.C., Mr. Loveless said. He took part in the first Battle of Bull Run, which turned into a route for the Northern soldiers.
President Abraham Lincoln was set to institute a draft, but enough men from New Jersey responded so that no one from this state was drafted, Mr. Loveless said. Township officials agreed to pay $50 to each man who enlisted. Township residents were assessed to pay for the bounty.
In the 1930s, school children were treated to visits by township resident and Civil War veteran Peter Van Kirk on Armistice Day and Decoration Day Veterans Day and Memorial Day, Mr. Loveless said. Mr. Van Kirk died in 1943, short of his 100th birthday, he said.
Township residents were called on to serve again in World War I, Mr. Loveless said. About 100 township men served in the military. Lawrence suffered three casualties. Austin Carter, for whom Carter Road is named, was the first Lawrence resident to be killed, he said.
Two-plus decades later, 600 township residents signed up to serve in the military in World War II, Mr. Loveless said. Some were drafted and others enlisted voluntarily. Of those who served from Lawrence, 22 were killed and more were injured.
William Anderson, whose family owned a farm in Lawrence, enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1943 when he was 18 years old, Mr. Loveless said. He was assigned to the SS Suffolk, which carried coal from Norfolk, Va., to Boston. The ship ran into a severe storm and sank off the coast of Long Island.
Mr. Anderson and another shipmate escaped on a life raft, Mr. Loveless said. That life raft, with the frozen remains of Mr. Anderson and his shipmate, was recovered off the coast of Greenland more than 1,000 miles from the location where the ship sank. He was given a burial at sea, Mr. Loveless said.
The Korean Campaign claimed the lives of four Lawrence Township men who had enlisted, Mr. Loveless said. The bodies of three of the four have been recovered, but Daniel DiSylvester’s body was never found, he said. His battalion was overrun by North Korean soldiers.
Although the Korean war was controversial at the time, that controversy fades by comparison to the stir created by the Vietnam War, Mr. Loveless said. Lawrence Township again sent men by draft and by their own volition into the military. Four residents were killed.
The plaque honoring the Vietnam War veterans has some names on it, but there are many more that are missing, Mr. Loveless said. Some veterans have chosen to remain anonymous, perhaps because of the way they were treated, he said.
While there are differing viewpoints on the present Iraqi conflict, the members of American Legion Post 414 and Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3022 support the men and women who wear the uniforms of the United States military, he said.
"We pray that they will return home safely and resume their lives," said Mr. Loveless.