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| Speaker Rich Rosenthal |
William Henry "Willie" McGee was a poor young man from Newark who enlisted in the Union Army during the Civil War. He served as an orderly but when his commanding officer was called away, Willie bravely stepped in and took command in battle, an act that earned him the Medal of Honor and made him a hero - or did it?
Well, Willie did serve in the Civil War as an orderly and received the Medal of Honor, but his account of bravery was a lie, said Rich Rosenthal in his recent talk on New Jersey Heroes and Scoundrels of the Civil War at the Warren Township Library. Willie's tall tales did help him get out of trouble on a few occasions, including the murder of a man in a brawl, but he finally ended up in Sing Sing Prison.
Willie's story was one of several colorful anecdotes shared by Rosenthal, President of the North Jersey Civil War Round Table, one of the largest Civil War round tables in the United States.
"The heroes to me are your grandfathers," said Rosenthal of his emphasis on the average person rather than generals and battles. "We hear about the great generals but what about the ones fighting and dying?"
And then there was Charles Ferren Hopkins, who unlike Willie, deserved to receive the Medal of Honor. Hopkins, said Rosenthal, carried a wounded officer to safety in the midst of battle and in spite of receiving several wounds himself. After a year's recuperation, Hopkins returns to service and was caught and sent to the notorious Andersonville Prison. Hopkins, who later became the Mayor of Boonton, was awarded the Medal of Honor 35 years after the war, based on an application made by a fellow soldier.
After his presentation, Rosenthal and Ginny Pasternak, secretary for the Civil War Round Table, donated a copy of New Jersey Goes to War: Biographies of 150 New Jerseyans Caught up in the Struggle of the Civil War, including Soldiers, Civilians, Men, Women, Heroes, Scoundrels - and a Heroic Horse. The book was written in honor of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. Warren Township Mayor Carolann Garafola, who attended the program, accepted the donated book on behalf of the library.
"I did my senior thesis on Andersonville," said Garafola.
To learn more about these people, and the horse, you can purchase your own copy of the book or borrow one from one of the county's library branches. There also are other books at the library including Discover your community's Civil War Heritage : Discover the Role of Your Town in the Most Significant Event in American History-- the Great Civil War That Determined Whether Our Country Would Survive as a Free and United Nation by Steven D. Glazer and Freedom to All New Jersey's African-American Civil War Soldiers by Joseph G. Bilby.
To see more photos from this lecture, please visit the Warren Township Library Facebook page.
To learn more about the Round Table, go to heir website.
