The Jersey Blues
Some 85 years ago this month.
Troops of the 113th U.S. Infantry Regiment (New Jersey National Guard) during the Virginia War Games of early June 1941. Note the very transitional nature of the outfit, with a M1911 (not A1) .45, early M1 Garands (the rifle had just been adopted in 1937), denim work dungarees, and M1917A1 Kelly helmets. One of the men wears a M1910 Haversack Pack, complete with a shovel.
The blue denim is actually appropriate to the unit’s history.
Organized on 26 October 1775 in the Continental Army as the 1st New Jersey Regiment, the unit fought extensively in the Revolutionary War.
The regiment was known as the “Jersey Blues” during the Revolutionary War for their uniforms and has served as a colonial militia dating back to 1673, mixing it up against the French and Native peoples. Illustrations by Theophile Marie Francois Lybaert and Richard Knötel
The regiment was recalled to the colors for Federal service against the British (again) in 1814, then called once more on 30 April 1861 for the Civil War. Further Federal service came against the Spanish (mustered in 5 May 1898, out 4 November 1898), and the Kaiser (25 March 1917-28 May 1919, going “over there” as the 113th Infantry Regiment with the 29th “Blue and Grey” Infantry Division).
Company “B”-113th Infantry-American Expeditionary Forces-France. Taken at Boureshes – Destroyed Town on the Edge of Belleau Woods, late 1918. Richards Film Service Inc. Signal Corps Photo 165-PP-17-1_28-0306M
Redesignated the 113th Infantry, the regiment was called up to the colors for its sixth official war on 16 September 1940 at home stations and only inactivated on 1 November 1945 at Camp Chaffee, Arkansas, having seen combat in the ETO with the 44th and later 104th Infantry Divisions.
Still part of the NJARNG, the 113th’s battle flag carries no less than 35 battle streamers, an impressive tally for a “part-time” unit.
Brandywine
Germantown
Monmouth
Yorktown
Canada 1776
New York 1776
New Jersey 1777
New York 1777
New York 1779
New Jersey 1780
War of 1812
Bull Run
Peninsula
Manassas
Antietam
Fredericksburg
Chancellorsville
Gettysburg
Wilderness
Spotsylvania
Cold Harbor
Petersburg
Shenandoah
Appomattox
Virginia 1863
Meuse-Argonne
Alsace 1918
Lorraine 1918
World War II
Northern France
Rhineland
Ardennes-Alsace
Central Europe
GWOT Phase 5: Iraqi Surge
GWOT Phase 6: Iraqi Sovereignty
The regimental motto is Fidelis et Fortis (Faithful and Brave).