Many of her brave men, officers and privates, were left upon southern battlefields. After the battle of Antietam eleven families in one block in Fifth street mourned for their dead heroes. Colonel Zabriskie and Colonel Van Houten both fell in battle. Their memories are still cherished and their brave deeds comemmorated in the Grand Army Posts which bear their names. Others were more fortunate and lived to wear the honors won by them. Chief of Police Benjamin Murphy enlisted before he was seventeen, in the 8th N. J. Infantry, which belonged to the famous Second New Jersey Brigade. He was one of less than twenty men of his regiment who served with it continuously from its organization until it was mustered out without having been absent during its service of four years and eleven months. He was promoted from private through the various grades of non-commissioned officers up to captain. After the war he was connected with the post office for a time, and raised Company "C" of the 4th Regiment about 1893. After he joined the police force he resigned from the National Guard. The good order and discipline of the police force is due to his executive ability. He was the author of and secured the passage of "The Tenure of Office" law, which has improved the police force throughout the state. Colonel Robinson of the police force is a war veteran also, but served with a Maryland regiment and came to Jersey City after the war. Brevet Major General John Ramsey had "few superiors as a stubborn fighter." Several times he received honorable mention in official reports and won his promotions step by step, from 1st Lieutenant up, for "distinguished gallantry." Colonel John J. Toffey entered the Second Regiment a boy of eighteen, re-enlisted in the 33rd Regiment as Lieutenant, and at Chattanooga was called upon to lead a forlorn hope in the place of two captains who had fallen in the attempt; his "superlatively brave conduct saved the position and enabled the entire line the following morning to press forward and unite the lines of the army of the Cumberland with those of General Sherman's army at the mouth of the Chickamauga." At the moment of success Colonel Toffey received a wound which incapacitated him from future service on the field, but he has continued his military services in the Veteran Corps and in the State Militia. He is the proud possessor of a Medal of Honor, granted by Congress under the Act of 1863, "for distinguished bravery in the battle of Chattanooga, November 23, 1863."