As the winter of 1864 was drawing to a close, it was becoming apparent that it might be the critical year of the bloody Civil War and that the men of New Jersey and Ocean County would be in the thick of the fighting. Alanson Haines, the 34-year-old chaplain of the 15th New Jersey, later summed up the progress of the war to that point.

“The Army of the Potomac had for three years been battling with the Army of Virginia. Its successes had been small.