Headden, George M.

Name: Headden, George M., PVT, 5^th New Jersey Infantry Regiment

Local Address: Wife and children in Middletown Point per 1860 census

George was born around 1819 in New Jersey, probably in Manalapan Township – the 1850 census indicated he was working there as a butcher, residing with his father John (1782-1865), mother Amelia and three siblings. His father was a judge and was active in county politics and governance.

Residing in Englishtown in 1853, George married Caroline Havens on January 10^th in Freehold and in 1854 the local Democratic organization had a meeting at his residence in Englishtown. Their 1^st Child, George N. Headden, was born that October in Manalapan. Daughter Sarah was born in Middletown Point in 1856, and the third child, Charles, in Keyport in 1858. The 1860 census has George and his family living apart – he was working as a farm laborer with a family in Manalapan, while wife Caroline and her three children were in Middletown Point.

On August 29, 1861, at over 40 years of age, George enlisted in Company K, 5^th New Jersey Infantry Regiment at Trenton. The unit was commanded by Captain Vincent W. Mount, a livery house operator from Freehold.

Unlike the nine-month enlistment regiments that most of Matawan’s men joined, the 5^th saw considerable, continuous action in the war. The day George enlisted, the regiment left for Washington DC. George participated in the siege of Yorktown and battles of Williamsburg, Fair Oaks, Malvern Hill, Groveton, Bull Run, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. At Gettysburg, the 5^th was assigned to the III Corps, 2^nd Division, 3^rd Brigade and on the 2nd day of the battle was involved in furious combat on the Emmetsburg Road between the town of Gettysburg and Little Round Top. Their regimental commander, Col. William Sewell, was severely wounded – he had previously won the Medal of Honor at Chancellorsville and would later become a US Senator for New Jersey. Prior to this battle, Company K had already lost two thirds of the men it started with. George subsequently re-enlisted on December 23, 1863.

The 5th was involved in the pursuit of Lee after Gettysburg, then fought in the Battle of the Wilderness in early May of 1864 and then at Spotsylvania Court House in Virginia the next week, where George was declared missing in action, presumed dead on May 12, 1864.

After the war, however, another 5th soldier stated that he and George had been captured and were imprisoned at the infamous Andersonville POW camp in Georgia. When Sherman threatened the area, the weakened POWs were transferred to an even worse camp at Florence, SC. George’s fellow prisoner stated that George died there in January of 1865 and was buried in a mass grave with around 2000 other Union soldiers. The site is now the Florence National Cemetery.