With an eye on the American Semiquincentennial, the 250th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, Bloomfield Cemetery is considering how to observe the occasion.
Cemetery Superintendent Mary Jones said one possibility may be a QR-coded tour of the gravesites of Revolutionary War veterans.
There are 33 known Bloomfield Cemetery gravesites of these men. On July 1, 2023, a monument engraved with 30 names was dedicated. Subsequently, three other Revolutionary War gravesites were identified.
The monument was fabricated by Michael Perrone, a local mason and president of the Belleville Historical Society. He has made it a personal mission to clean the headstones of veterans.
At the dedication, Perrone anticipated other Revolutionary War gravesites would be found. Two weeks ago he was at the cemetery cleaning the headstone of one of them.
The gravesite was that of Jonathan Baldwin and his wife, Patience, who died in 1824 and 1825, respectively; no birth date was given. Perrone said in Essex County there were a number of Revolutionary War gravesites including a mass grave in Newark, at the First Presbyterian Church; in Belleville, 68 gravesites were at the Dutch Reformed Church; 12 at the Caldwell First Presbyterian Church; 70 at the Orange First Presbyterian Church and the 33 in Bloomfield Cemetery.
“There are a lot buried in Orange, but I don’t know where they are,” he said. “There’s no way of knowing. But in Bloomfield, you can visit their graves. All the locations are marked with headstones.”
There are eight Baldwin names engraved in the Revolutionary War Monument at Bloomfield Cemetery. Jonathan Baldwin was deemed a war veteran by Chris Schopfer, an amateur historian with roots in the township. In a telephone interview, he explained how he researched Baldwin’s status.
“I made a spreadsheet that went by the age of the people who served in the war,” he said. “That, and the official register of officers and men who served, compiled by the Adjunct General of New Jersey. Baldwin was of prime age, from Essex County and a fifth-grade grandson made an application, in 1918, to the Sons of the American Revolution.
“The concept of veterans from Bloomfield was a loose concept,” Schopfer continued. “Just because they’re buried there doesn’t mean they’re from Bloomfield, or they could have been buried somewhere else.”
While cleaning the headstone, Perrone said it was likely that Baldwin was in the Battle of Second River which occurred in September of 1777, and was the only Revolutionary War battle fought in Essex County.
Second River was the name given to what is now Belleville. But the field of battle covered a swath of land including Branch Brook Park and Bloomfield.
Schopfer said he considered the fighting in Bloomfield as ancillary to the Battle of Second River which he thought was basically a defense against a major British foraging expedition.
In the battle, Perrone said the colonists had three pieces of artillery.
“That’s a big deal,” he said. “The British had at least two. But they weren’t looking for a fight. They had come to New Jersey from Manhattan to steal livestock and grain.”
At 59 Dodd St., on a defunct bank building, is a plaque commemorating the fighting. It read, in part, that the site was where a company of Essex County militia fought British raiders on Sept. 13, 1777, and that Jemima Condict, in her diary, described the “smart scrimmage.” She wrote this when she was 17. She died at 25
The diary is presently located at the New Jersey Historical Society. There appears to be several spelling discrepancies between the plaque and diary which reads, in part:
“September 12, 1777. On Friday, there was an alarm; our militia was called. The regulars came over into Elizabeth town where they had a brush with a small party of our people, then marched quietly up to Newark and took all the cattle they could. There was five in the militia at Newark. They killed Samuel Crane and took Zadick and Allen Heady and Samuel Freeman prisoners.
“They went up to Second river and on Saturday morning marched up towards Wadseson. Our people attacked them there where they had a smart scrimirsh. Some of our people got wounded there, but I do not learn that any were killed. There were several killed of the regulars, but the number is uncertain.”
According to Perrone, there are no gravesites for British soldiers dying so far from home. They were buried on the field.
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