Camp Merritt, New Jersey

Camp Merritt was a military base in Dumont and Cresskill, in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States, that was activated for use in World War I.

The alternate route involved marching in contingents of two to three thousand men to the North-East and descending the Palisades.

At the age of 27 he was made a full Major General of volunteers, after making his way through the ranks and receiving high positions including Superintendent of the Military Academy at West Point, Governor General of the Philippines, and other prestigious positions.

Ten years later General Merritt died and was buried at West Point with full military honors.

[8] The United States army needed a location to assemble and for the deployment of troops to the Western Front during World War I.

In 1917, Brigadier-General William Wright, Commanding General of the New York Port of Embarkation, chose the location in Bergen County on Knickerbocker road and Grant Avenue.

[9] Some of the resourceful aspects of the area include the easy method of the sewerage, water supply, lighting, and railroad connections.

[10] The location of Camp Merritt was ideal because of the easy access to Hoboken from where the soldiers would be embarking on the transports.

The original plans called for seven regiments of infantry, six warehouses, miscellaneous buildings, and a post hospital with a capacity of five hundred beds.

Major General David C. Shanks called Merritt Hall “the finest soldiers club in America.”[9] On January 9, 1918, the post hospital was opened.

[12] The nurses and doctors treated various cases including anthrax, pneumonia, measles, scarlet fever, mumps, and particularly the influenza virus.

[19] To honor those who passed through Camp Merritt, a monument was erected at the intersection of Madison Avenue and Knickerbocker Road at the border of Cresskill and Dumont.

[12] The 66.6-foot (20.3 m) tall granite obelisk, modeled after the Washington Monument is inscribed with the names of the 578 people who died at the camp during the war due to the worldwide influenza epidemic of 1918.

Robert Ingersoll Aitken sculpted the relief sculpture of a helmeted soldier on the one side of the base of the monument.