Defending His Rights: The 1862 Middletown Point Incident

On the evening of October 1, 1862, 27-year-old Charles Henderson, a married father of two, walked to get his team of horses from the Applegate Hotel, located at what is now Main and Little Street where Brew Coffeehouse now stands. As he left the African American area of town labeled “Africa” on period maps – what is now the Atlantic/Johnson Avenue area – he armed himself with a knife and most likely was quite concerned for his safety as he crossed Gravelly Brook toward town.

The Monmouth County Democrat reported that a “series of raids” had been made “lately on the negroes here and about” – chiefly in the vicinity of Middletown Point. The leaders of these were John H. Chasey and one Cottrell, first name unknown, two newly enlisted soldiers from the New Jersey 29^th Infantry Regiment, Company “I”. This unit had recently been put together for a short, 9-month tour to take over non-combat roles to free experienced troops to fight in the vicinity of Washington, DC. Company “I” was made up mostly of Middletown Point men, and in the days leading up to their mustering at Freehold, some apparently ran wild, unhindered by any town constable or local militia. They had ordered “colored residents of the Point that they must not be seen in the streets after a certain hour in the evening, under penalty of serious consequences.” It was these two who confronted Hendrickson as he went to tend his horses.

In the altercation that followed, Hendrickson eviscerated Chasey, who was “terribly cut open with a knife, so that his bowels protruded.” Cottrell escaped unhurt.

Hendrickson was arrested and brought to jail in Freehold. When the sheriff found out that Chasey’s comrades in the 29^th planned to lynch him, he was spirited to Trenton until the regiment moved south. Chasey died of his wounds on October 23^rd, and in a trial occuring December 18^th, Hendrickson was quickly acquitted and set free. He subsequently enlisted in the 25^th United States Colored Infantry Regiment in January of 1864 and was sent to garrison Fort Barrancas in Pensacola Bay for the duration of the war.

After the war, he moved to Neptune and had four more children. He served as the senior vice commander of the Caillaux GAR Post in that city and died in Trenton in 1910. He is buried in the Saint James AME Zion burial ground on Johnson Avenue.

It is interesting that a sizable portion of the citizens of Middletown Point had lived under terror for days, and this merited newspaper reporting only after one of the perpetrators had been stabbed in self-defense.