[1][2] The regiment got its nickname, Jersey Muskrats, during the Battle of Roanoke Island when they successfully "sloshed through shoe sucking mud into waist deep water in "division" formation",[3] giving the regiment a two-company front flanking the enemy.

[4] Key training dates: The 9th moved out of Camp Olden on 4 December for Washington, D.C., to join the Union Army.

[6][7] Key service dates: (non-battle related) The first test of the regiment came in February 1862 during the Burnside Expedition to Roanoke Island in North Carolina.

The regiment was assigned to the command of Brigadier-General Jesse L. Reno, embarked on two naval vessels on 10 January, and made for Fortress Monroe.

[6] Colonel Joseph Allen and Dr. Weller (Surgeon) drowned while returning to the ship, Ann E. Thompson, from a meeting with General Burnside on 15 January.

[14] Regimental headquarters was set up near "Carolina City", the companies were assigned railroad guard and garrison duty throughout the area.

[14] The regimental headquarters remained in barracks during the Battle of Fort Macon on 25 and 26 April 1862 but various companies were assigned picket duty to guard the approaches from Wilmington.

[19] Major-General John G. Foster led an expedition to Tarboro, North Carolina (also called "Tarborough") starting 31 October 1862.

[19] On 8 December 1862 Colonel Heckman was given an independent command that included the 9th New Jersey, a detachment from the 3rd New York Cavalry, and the 1st Rhode Island Battery.

[17] Foster led 10,000[17] to 12,000[20] directly west toward Goldsboro, North Carolina (sometimes written as "Goldsborough").

[20] The regiment spent the last part of 1862 on several raids intent on keeping the enemy busy: Colonel Heckman was promoted to brigadier general for his actions at Goldsboro.

[22] On 13 August 1863 Major-General Peck assumed command of the Department of North Carolina from General Heckman.

The regiment then moved to Newport News, Virginia on 18–20 October where Heckman's command was based.

The regiment joined the Army of the James during the Peninsular Campaign leading to Petersburg, Virginia.

The regiment reformed at Getty's Station and set sail on 14 April 1864 in a series of movements intended to disguise their true goal.

[27] (see also Bermuda Hundred Campaign) The Star Brigade under General Heckman was ordered toward the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad.

On 6 May, the brigade encountered two understrength South Carolina regiments positioned in a sunken road.

9 May XVIII and X corps pushed south to Swift Creek, finally able to destroy a portion of the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad.

[31] The 9th was almost constantly engaged in skirmishes until 29 May when ordered to White House, Virginia, on the Pamunkey River by way of City Point.

Maj. Gen. William F. "Baldy" Smith's XVIII Corps joined up with Grant's Army of the Potomac at Cold Harbor.

[35] Upon reaching Bermuda Hundred on 15 June 1864 the nine remaining companies of the 9th plus much reduced 23 Massachusetts were formed into the Provisional Brigade.

[34] On 25 August 1864 the regiment moved to Point of Rocks where they met the recently released General Heckman.

Lt. Drake had been captured at Drewry's Bluff but escaped by jumping from a train on its way to South Carolina.

The second enlistment started in Virginia during the drive to Richmond and finished back in North Carolina.

One member of the 9th New Jersey, 2nd Lieutenant Ethelbert Hubbs of Commack, Long Island, New York, chose to retire from the military in September 1863 to accept an appointment as a Special Agent of the Treasury Department, charged with administering the program on "Abandoned Lands and Plantations" in Craven County, North Carolina (The Freedmen's Bureau).

Ethelbert Hubbs was called to Washington, D.C., in about 1882 to provide testimony to a US Senate Special Committee investigating the rise of the Ku Klux Klan and violence throughout the south following reconstruction.

This story shows that medical treatment and transfer could be very quick to move men away from the battlefield.

From that point on the Army had an organized set of hospitals to care for the wounded while moving them back to their home state.

John married while on furlough at Christmas 1864 and later removed to Standing Stone Township, Bradford County, Pennsylvania, where he farmed until his death in February 1887.

Later pension affidavits indicate he died of an unnamed stomach ailment that plagued him from the war until his death.