The Response of the Urban Militia to Social Disorders Before the Civil War

FAIN: FT-12538-75

Joel Schwartz
Montclair State University (Montclair, NJ 07043-1600)

To examine the reaction of the volunteer militia in Newark, Trenton, Paterson, and Jersey City to the turbulent social changes before the Civil War. Study will investigate how local military leaders responded to disruptive changes in the 1840s and 1850s, to the influx of German and Irish-Catholic immigrants who promptly formed their own militia units, and to the wave of strikes against the factory system, which often saw rifle companies called out to quell labor unrest.