During World War I, New Jersey playing a prominent role in the manufacturing of war-related munitions, creating the infrastructure necessary to train and mobilize troops, and supplying a portion of the manpower necessary to fight overseas.
Without the support of New Jersey's industrial base, the war effort of the United States may very well have failed. Contributions from NJ ranged from artillery rounds from Amatol, fuses from Bloomfield, shells from Lyndhurst, gun carriages (Singer), aircraft engines (Duesenberg), Handley Page Bombers from Elizabeth, and ship building (New York Shipbuilding).
Over 140,000 New Jerseyans served during the war, and the state was home to 38 military installations by the end of the war, including Camp Dix. Troops from New Jersey included National Guard units activated and assigned to the 29th Division that trained at Camp McClellan, Alabama, and National Army soldiers (draftee) assigned to the 78th Division that trained at Camp Dix. New Jersey-based units from the 29th and 78th Infantry Divisions would fight in the Meuse-Argonne offensive. Women, too, underwent training in New Jersey, in preparation to serve in the Army Signal Corps, while women from the state volunteered to serve with aid organizations including the Red Cross, and raised money for the war effort.
In the post-war years, over 160 monuments were constructed across New Jersey to memorialize the war dead and honor the veterans who served in the Great War, including several of the famous "Spirit of the American Doughboy" statue produced by E. M. Viquesney. New Jersey mothers and widows would travel the battlefields and cemeteries of France to visit the graves of their loved ones in the 1930s as part of the Gold Star Mothers and Widows Pilgrimage.
This book will for the first time reveal the full extent of New Jersey's pivotal role in America's war effort during the Great War.
