Bergen County NJ Archives Biographies.....Benjamin W. HOPPER, 1839 - 1906 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/nj/njfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 November 10, 2008, 2:27 am Author: Mary Depue Ogden, Editor (1917) HOPPER, Benjamin W., Veteran of Civil War. Benjamin W. Hopper, son of John A. and Keziah (Westervelt) Hopper, was born in Bergen county, New Jersey, near Hackensack, May 15, 1839. He was brought up in Newfoundland, Morris county, 1840-55, where he received his school training. He was apprenticed to the trade of carpenter in Newark in 1856, and in spring of 1861 arranged to go to Macon, Georgia, as a master mechanic in carpentering and building, he having accepted a flattering offer for a master builder in that southern city. The outbreak of the Civil War, however, changed the plan and the whole current of his future life. He went south as a soldier instead of as a master carpenter, and on September 1, 1861, was in the ranks of the Union army as a private in the Ninth New Jersey Volunteer Regiment Lieutenant Colonel Charles A. Hickman. He was assigned to Company E, and in December, 1861, was promoted to sergeant. He went with the regiment to North Carolina in the Burnside expedition, and at Roanoke Island his regiment was second in line of battle in the Second Brigade under command of General Jesse L. Reno, the army being under command of Major-General Ambrose E. Burnside. Sergeant Hopper distinguished himself at Roanoke Island when the troops were landed under cover of the gunboats, and as General Foster in command of the First Brigade had awaited the arrival of General Reno with the Second Brigade no fighting occurred between the two assembled armies until Reno's arrival to take his place on the left with the Twenty-first Massachusetts, which had the right of the line, followed by the Ninth New Jersey and the Twenty-first New York, and the three regiments began an effective attack, turning the Confederate right by marching through a thicket of briers, shrubs and swamp land, almost impenetrable. This was February 8, 1862, and after the capture of the fort, Foster and Reno pursued the enemy to the northern extremity of the island, where an unconditional surrender of the entire Confederate force was effected. After a well-earned rest the army proceeded to the attack on New Berne, which place was reached by transports under guard of the gunboats. Here again Reno had the extreme left and made his favorite swing to the rear of the Confederate right, and the enemy found themselves between two effective fires and broke and fled to the town, burning the bridges as they retreated, and in that way escaped capture. The town of New Berne, North Carolina, was occupied by Burnside and his army in the afternoon of March 14, 1862. Burnside sums up the victory as follows: "The Burnside Expedition has passed into history; its records we can be proud of. No body of troops ever had more difficulties to overcome in the same space of time. Its perils were both by land and water. Defeat never befell it. Its experience was a succession of honorable victories." The gallantry of Sergeant Hopper attracted the attention of Colonel Hickman, who promptly promoted him to a lieutenancy and subsequently made him captain of the company. He followed the fortunes of his regiment through the entire war. His sword hand was disabled while leading an advance on the abattis protecting Fort Darling, May 14, 1864; at the terrific combat at Drury's Bluff, May 16, 1864, he was wounded in the breast and arm and was ordered to the rear by Regimental Surgeon Gillette. He persisted in remaining with his command, his bleeding arm supported by a sling which the surgeon extemporized, and he sought the aid and comfort of the hospital only after he had secured for his decimated command a position of comparative safety. Such a commander could not fail to secure the universal respect and love of every member of the company and the esteem of every member of the regiment. In the final campaign of the Caro-linas after the fall of Wilmington, North Carolina, and near the close of t-he war, his regiment was, with a division of the Twenty-third Army Corps under command of Major-General Cox, placed in command of the Beaufort district The Ninth New Jersey was in the Second Brigade under Colonel James Stewart, the regiment being commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel Hufby. The duties of this column were to open the railway from New Berne to Goldsboro. Sergeant Hopper had fought with his regiment at New Berne early in the war, and now at its close the fortunes of war carried him back to familiar places, and after the successful battle of New Berne, March 8-10, 1865, the Union army occupied Kinston, North Carolina, March 14, and reached Goldsboro on the 21st. He led his company into Goldsboro, North Carolina, March 21, 1865, and secured the capitulation of the citizens and few troops who had not fled. The commander of the Ninth New Jersey in recognition of his valor and daring in capturing the city, detailed his company as provost guard, and Captain Hopper was made inspector-general of the Twenty-third Army Corps, the onerous duties of which position were so well performed that he received special commendation from General Sherman and Generals Cox and Schofield. Upon his return home, Captain Hopper, through the kind offices of his old commander, now General Hickman, was appointed a conductor on the Central Railroad of New Jersey, and he held that responsible position together with that of general freight agent of the road for over forty years, becoming personally known to every regular patron of the road. He died in Newark, New Jersey, April 18, 1906. His brother, Henry Hopper, was also a veteran of the Civil War. He was eighteen years of age and he left the plow in the furrow and hastened to join his brother, Benjamin W., who was recruiting volunteers to fill up Company E of the Ninth New Jersey Volunteers. He followed the fortunes of his brother and the Ninth New Jersey at Hatteras, when he was detailed to serve on the gunboat fleet that bombarded the fort on Roanoke Island. In the afternoon before the eventful day on which the forts were captured, he urged strongly to be allowed to go ashore with the launch carrying howitzers to the scene of the attack, and thus became temporarily attached to his regiment and took part in both the battles of Roanoke Island and New Berne. His brother, then a private, assisted in dragging and firing the howitzers, the only artillery ashore at Roanoke Island, until after the victory had been won. After New Berne had capitulated, and seeing ahead no more gun boat fighting, he procured his discharge from the naval service, and from that time until the end of the war was with his regiment and his brother who so gallantly commanded Company E. He was mustered out with the regiment in July, 1865, and again took his place at the plow and he continued on the farm until 1873, when he went to Newark and obtained employment there. In 1878 he was appointed on the police force as patrolman. He soon made his services to the city and the department so valuable that he was promoted through the grades to captain of the precinct and thence to chief of the police force of the city of Newark, from which honorable position, especially honored by his unimpeachable character and service, he resigned. Additional Comments: Extracted from: MEMORIAL CYCLOPEDIA OF NEW JERSEY UNDER THE EDITORIAL SUPERVISION OF MARY DEPUE OGDEN VOLUME III MEMORIAL HISTORY COMPANY NEWARK, NEW JERSEY 1917 This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/njfiles/ File size: 7.9 Kb This file is located at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/nj/bergen/bios/hopper-bw.txt