The fall of 1864 was a crucial time for the nation and those who fought for the Union. The men of the 9th New Jersey Regiment, whose ranks included most of the men from Ocean County, had received orders to leave the trenches outside Petersburg, Va., and redeploy to North Carolina, a place where they’d had one glory in 1862. The move was part of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s policy of pressing the Confederates on all fronts at once.

Meanwhile, many men of the 9th had been captured during the fighting outside Richmond; the enlisted men were sent to…