New Jersey Butterfly Boys in the Civil War – The Hussars of the Union Army
In the last year of the Civil War, the Union formed a traditional European cavalry unit known as the New Jersey Butterflies. They enticed men to join a galloping, dashing, romantic cavalry unit that would charge its enemy armed only with sabers. Officially named the Third New Jersey Cavalry and also called the First American Hussars, the unit fought in decisive battles with General George Armstrong Custer and General Philip Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley, forcing and following Lee’s retreat. Many of them German and Irish immigrants, these “Jersey” men lie buried in their native soil from one end of the state to the other. Author Peter T. Lubrecht traces their histories, providing detailed information on their lives before, during and after the war.
About Dr. Peter Lubrecht (North Jersey Author)
Peter Lubrecht Sr. has a doctorate in educational theater from New York University. An avid researcher with an interest in historical theater, he has been lecturing locally on the Civil War, Shakespeare, the Booth family and nineteenth-century American theater. Currently, he is an adjunct professor of English at Northampton Community College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
