New Jersey, USA, and the Great War

World War I Memorial, Atlantic City

When the United States entered World War I on 6 April 6 1917, New Jersey joined other states in sending resources—human and material. But, as has been the case frequently in the history of the Garden State, its unique location on the busy Atlantic coast and diverse mixture of residents and resources led to other significant contributions to the national effort. From the outbreak of hostilities in Europe in 1914 until the 1918 Armistice, New Jersey was deeply involved in the war and America's national efforts.

Two notable events that preceded America's entry into the war are linked to the state of New Jersey.

• Prior to becoming president of the United States in 1913 and overseeing the American entry into World War I, Woodrow Wilson graduated from Princeton, served as the university’s president, and was elected the 34th governor of the State of New Jersey.

• On 30 July 1916, railroad cars packed with ammunition blew up at the Black Tom depot in Jersey City, killing seven people and spewing shrapnel that tore holes in the Statue of Liberty. The incident was part of a German plan to destroy military supplies for the Allies. (Article) 

Damage at Black Tom

Mobilizing the State

From the United States’ entry into the war in April of 1917 to the conclusion of hostilities, over 141,000 New Jerseyans served, including more than 1,000 women. New Jersey lost 3,836 people to combat, disease, and accident. Eight New Jerseyans were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, two of them posthumously.

What is now designated the Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst (New Jersey) in Burlington County has been serving America's Armed Forces since 18 July 1917, when its predecessor, Camp Dix, was officially established as a training and staging camp for troops destined for the battlefields of Europe. Camp Dix rapidly became one of the nation's largest military reservations as the 78th, 87th, and 34th Divisions and many smaller units trained for the war.

25,000 Men Training at Camp Dix in 1918

"Heaven, Hell, or Hoboken"

The City Hoboken proved to be one of America's most valuable assets during the Great War. The war’s effects were immediately felt there, home to major European shipping companies and numerous immigrants and foreign nationals. At the 1914 outbreak of war, the British Royal Navy acted quickly to blockade Germany. British warships rounded up German merchant vessels or drove them to port. 

A number of German ships were in port in Hoboken, the American home of the Hamburg American and North German Lloyd steamship lines. The ships would remain stuck in port until the American military seized them in 1917. At dawn on 6 April 1917, U.S. Army soldiers seized the German ships as they sat in port. Two weeks later the German shipping companies’ piers were taken over by the government and army encampments were established there. The prize ships of the Hamburg-American and North German Lloyd lines were turned into massive troop transports.

Hoboken's AEF Memorial

Soon after America's declaration of war, Hoboken was declared the main point of embarkation for the United States Expeditionary Force, as the forces heading to fight the war in Europe were called. Hoboken took a proud place in the American war effort, but many of the city’s residents and business owners would face hardship during the war. According to the 1910 U.S. Census, Hoboken had a total population of 70,324 people, of which 10,018 were German-born. Over the course of the war, many of Hoboken’s Germans were detained, evicted from their homes, lost their jobs, or saw their businesses shut down. High-level employees of the German shipping companies were among those arrested shortly after America’s entry into the war.  

Camp Merritt at Tenafly, NJ, a transit center, was under the control of the New York Port of Embarkation. It was created to assemble the troops leaving for France via nearby Hoboken and the other New York docks. Over 1.6 million men were sent to France via this route, including over a million through Hoboken and a comparable number would return after the Armistice.

The first convoy carrying American troops to war left Hoboken on 14 June 1917. Fourteen transport ships, carrying 11,991 officers, enlisted men, and civilians departed the city. A total of 936 voyages to France and England were made from Hoboken during the war. Many troops were brought overseas in German ships that had been captured in Hoboken. Among these ships was the USS Leviathan, formerly the Hamburg-American liner Vaterland.

General Pershing on a Postwar Visit to Hoboken to
Show His Appreciation

The Industrial Contribution to Victory

Companies, such as Johnson & Johnson, DuPont, Singer, and E.R. Squibb, produced essential munitions, uniforms, and medical supplies in New Jersey that sustained the United States and its allies during the war. As demand for military supplies increased, New Jersey’s strong industrial infrastructure made the state the largest supplier of munitions in America by 1918. 

New Jersey Women Supporting the War

As elsewhere in America,  New Jersey women entered the workforce in unprecedented numbers, working in fields like aircraft, optical goods, rubber goods, photographic supplies, leather goods, and electrical goods. With increasing demands for workers to meet the needs of military production and European immigration curtailed during the war, New Jersey industries sent labor agents south to recruit African American workers. The recruitment effort continued following the war's end as the economy prospered during the decade of the 1920s.

Memorable New Jerseyans from the War

Governor Edge

New Jersey has the singular history among American states of having the same individual, Walter Evans Edge, serve as its governor in both World Wars. A considerable part of Edge's efforts in his first term as governor involved the mobilization for World War I and postwar planning. Despite being a partisan opponent of Wilson when he was governor, the Republican Governor Edge vigorously supported the president's efforts to build the new camps and put the state's economy on a war footing. In the next war, however, the most memorable aspect of his World War II service as governor would be his series of battles with the state's Democratic machine.

Thomas Edison kept busy during World War I. He became a vocal proponent of military preparedness, faced the challenges of rebuilding his West Orange factory after a disastrous fire, chaired the Naval Consulting Board and conducted research aimed at helping the U.S. Navy respond to submarine warfare. His oldest daughter, Marion, spent much of the war behind enemy lines as the wife of a German Army officer, while his son William fought for the Allies in France as a sergeant in the U.S. Tank Corps.

Flying Sergeant Ronald Wood Hoskier of South Orange left Harvard to become a pilot with the Lafayette Escadrille. He fell in action near St. Quentin in April 1917 and is buried at the Lafayette Escadrille Memorial outside Paris.

Joyce Kilmer, one of the most famous Americans to serve during World War I, called New Jersey home. Born in New Brunswick, the soldier/poet had earned national recognition for his popular poetry before the war. He was killed in action during the Second Battle of the Marne and is buried at the Oise-Aisne American Cemetery in France.

Remembering the Sacrifice

The 313th Infantry, 79th Division Welcomed Home

Today there are over 160 World War I memorials in New Jersey, almost all installed during the interwar period. Recently,  New Jersey has been the main studio site for Sabin Howard, sculptor of the dramatic A Soldier's Journey, centerpiece of the new National World War I Memorial.

Historic Footnote

On July 1921, New Jersey was the site of the signing of the Knox-Porter Resolution by President Warren Harding to officially end American wartime involvement.

President Harding Signing the Resolution

Sources:   VisitNJ.org/WW1; Drew University archives; New Jersey History; NJ WWI Centennial; Monmouth Library 2015 Exhibit,  the New Jersey Almanac; Find a Grave; Hoboken in WWI