New Jersey Butterfly Boys in the Civil War: The Hussars of the Union Army

Wearing gilt-trimmed hats and bright orange capes, these New Jersey soldiers charged into the Shenandoah Valley and helped end the Civil War.

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...