New Jersey

One of the Middle Atlantic States, and one of the original thirteen of the American Confederacy. Settlements were made at Bergen, in New Jersey, soon after their arrival in New York, by the Dutch, between the years 1614 and 1624. The whole of the region lying between the Delaware and the Hudson was claimed by them, although the Swedes had made some settlements in the western part of the same country. These claims, however, were disregarded by the British; and in 1664, Charles II. granted to the Duke of York the whole of this country, and in the same year the duke sold it to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, in honor of the latter of whom, a native of Jersey, it received the name which it still bears. The Dutch again got po e ion of it in 1673, but resigned it on the conclusion of peace in the following year. New Jersey escaped the inroads of the savage tribes which desolated and afflicted most of the older colonies; but in the war of the Revolution it suffered greatly, and was the scene of many important battles, such as Trenton, Princeton, Millstone, Red Bank, and Mon mouth. In the late civil war, New Jersey contributed greatly to the cause of the Union, and her regiments were distinguished on many important battle-fields.