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GEN. WILLIAM SCDDDER STRYKER 
 
 Adjutant-General of New Jersey, 1867-1900; Pres- ^ 
 
 IDENT OF THE NeW JeRSEY HISTORICAL SOCIETV; 
 
 President of the Society of the Cincinnati in 
 New Jersey; Author of ''The Battles of Trei;- 
 TON and Princeton," etc. 
 
 A MEMORIAL TRIBUTE. 
 
 By William Nelson. 
 
 paterson^ n. j. 
 
 The Paterson History Club. 
 
 1901. 
 
• » • • . 
 
GEN. WILLIAM SCUDDER STRYKER 
 
 Adjutant-General OF New Jersey, 1867-1900; Pres- 
 ident OF the New Jersey Historical Society; 
 President of the Society of the Cincinnati in 
 New Jersey; Author of "The Battles of Tren- 
 ton AND Princeton," etc. 
 
 A MEMORIAL TRIBUTE. 
 
 By William Nelson. 
 
 paterson, n. j. 
 
 The Paterson History Club. 
 
 1901. 
 
,5 
 
 One Hundred Copies Printed. 
 
 Reprinted (with some additions) from The New York 
 Genealogical and Biographical Record, for January, 
 1901. p^ 
 
 Author. 
 
 4 Ag'08 
 
GEN. WILLIAM SCUDDER SIRYKER. 
 
 The Strvkeis are amono- ihe oldest and best known 
 families in Holland, one branch having been located near 
 Tiie Hague for eight centuries, and another living near 
 Rotterdam. Many ancient tombs of the family, with 
 sculptured arms surmounted jjy a ducal coronet, rre to- be 
 seen in the old cathedral of St. Bavon, Haarlem. 
 
 Jan Strycker came to New Amsterdam in 1652, and 
 two years later removed to Midv/out (now Flatbush). 
 Long Island, where for nearly twenty years he was the 
 Chief Magistrate, and held various positions, civil and 
 military, until his death in 1697, at the age of eigthy-two. 
 His son, Pieter Strycker (1653-1741), in' 1710 bought a 
 tract of four thousand acres in Somerset County, New 
 Jersey, on which two' of his sons and four of his grand- 
 sons settled (1730- 1 740). One of these grandsons (son 
 of Jan, 1684-1770) was Abraham (1715-1777), who re- 
 moved to Nev; Jersey in the spring of 1740. He was the 
 father of Cnristoffel H, Strycker (1761-1805) whose son 
 Thomas J. Stryker (1800-1872) was one of the best 
 known and most respected citizens of Trenton, where he 
 held many public and private places of trust. He married 
 a daughter of John Scuddc-r, a descendant of Thomas 
 Scudder, who is mentioned in the aniials ot Salein, Mass., 
 as early as 1653.* 
 
 Of this mingled Holland and New England ancestry, 
 settled in America for two and a half centuries, was Wil- 
 liam Scadder Stryker. born in Trenton, June 6. 1838. 
 
 ♦See upnealogical Record of the Strvcker Familv. compiled 'ay 
 William S. Stryker. Camden. 1887. .Svo.. pp. 112. Printed for private 
 distribution among members of the familv onlv. 
 
He was graduated at Princeton College in 1858, and im- 
 mediately began studying law, but when President Lin- 
 coln's first call for troops came, the young law student 
 abandoned everything in his eagerness to respond to his 
 country's summc«ns, and enlisted as a private, April 16, 
 1 86 1, his company being ordered en special duty the same 
 day. He served three months at Lhis time. In the sum- 
 mer of 1S62 he assisted in the organization of the Four- 
 teenth Regiment, New Jersey Volunteers. He was com- 
 mission'^d Paymaster, wath the rank of Major, February 
 19, 1863, and ordered to Hilton Head, S. C. A service 
 more congenial to nis ma.rtial spirit was opened to him 
 when, July 8. 1863, he was made Major and Aide-de- 
 Camp on the staff of Major-General Quincy A. Gillmore, 
 then in command of the Tenth Army Corps, in the vicin- 
 ity of Hilton Head, S. C. Here he participated in the 
 capture of Morris Island, July 10, 1863, and in the as- 
 saults on Fort Wagner. At a critical moment in one of 
 these engagements he was dispatched with orders to s 
 distant poiiit. The way was swept by a storm of shot 
 and shell from the rebel batteries, bu<- the gallant young 
 officer fearlessly galloped through it all, delivered his mes- 
 sage, and returned in safety. Thousands or both sides 
 watched breathlessly that dauntless rider. Years after, 
 at an Army reunion, an officer told General StryVer that 
 he and others who beheld with straining eyes that won- 
 derful braving of almost certain death ne\'er believed it 
 possible that hz couid win his way through the fierce hail 
 that hurtled across his path. Another fearful experience 
 was the bloody night attack on Fort Wagner, on July 18, 
 1863. He was one of the few surviving officers who had 
 the pleasure of witnessing the unveiling, thir*-y years 
 after, of the superb statue erected in Boston in iiemorv 
 of Col. Robert G. Shaw, who fell in the van of that at- 
 
5 
 
 tack with his heroic colored regiiTient. On accoimt of 
 iUness contracted in the ardncus service in the sieg-e of 
 Charleston, Major Stryker was transferred to the Fay- 
 master's Department at Cclumhus, Ohiou On the way he 
 stopped at Washingto-n to deliver messages to the Presi- 
 dent. Mr. Lincoln was greaty interested in the hand- 
 some young officer, and hegan to question him about some 
 of his experiences and obsen'ations, when suddenly he 
 saw him reel in faintness. He caught him in his arms, 
 laid him on a lounge, sent for and applied restoratives, 
 and ministered to him with all the tender sympathy of a 
 woman, until he recovered sufficiently tc i^t.urn to his 
 hotel. Major Stryker retired from the army in June, 1866, 
 with the rank of Brevet-Lieutenant-Colonel, and again 
 took up his residence in his native city. He was appointed 
 Adjutant-General of New Jersey, April 12, 1867, with 
 the rank of Brigadier General, and, by successive appoint- 
 ments, of various governors of different politics, he was 
 continued until his death in the office he so highly adorned. 
 In 1874 he was commissioned Brevet-Ma jor-Ger.eral, for 
 long and meritorious service as Adjutant-General of the 
 State. 
 
 Immediately upon assuming his position as Adjutant- 
 General, he set about perfecting the war records of New 
 Jersey, and in 1872 issued a stout octavo volume con- 
 taining lists of officers and men of New Jersey in the 
 Revolutionary War — the pioneer work of the kind in 
 America. In 1876 h«- brought out two large quarto 
 volumes of 1930 pages, giving the rosters and details of 
 service of Jerseymen in the Civil War. For many years 
 he had been revising and adding to the RevoJutionary 
 lists, and had also compiled records of the service of Jer- 
 seymen in the Colonial Wars, the Whiskey Insurrection 
 of 1794, the War of 1812. and the Mexican War, all of 
 
which he hoped to have printed this year. In 1898 he 
 pnbh'shed a most admirable and exhaustive narrative of 
 the Battles of Trenton and Princeton, which at once took 
 a hig-h rank among the histories of famous battles. He 
 had about completed the manuscript of a similar work on 
 the Battle of Monmouth, V/hich probably would have been 
 published in another year. His separate monographs on 
 historical subjects number a score or more, each, and all 
 exhibiting the true spirit of historical research, as well as 
 a pleasing literary style. In 1899 Princeton University 
 conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL. D. 
 
 Genera] Siryker was most public-spirited, and was al- 
 ways ready to take an active part in every movement cal- 
 culated to benefit his tovvu or State, or the country at 
 large. Since 1843 there had been a Trenton Battle Monu- 
 ment Association, formed to secure the erection of a fit- 
 ting memorial of Washington's famous capture of the 
 Hessian garrison at Trenton, in 1776; but beyond the 
 issue oi an address to the people of the State, with a pretty 
 lithograph of the proposed shaft, it had accomplished lit- 
 tle. On May 12, 1884, Gen. Stryker was elected Presi- 
 dent of the Association, and it was mainly through his 
 indefatigable exertions that a splendid monument was 
 erected, at a cost of $60,000. It was one of the proudest 
 days of his life when the completed shaft was dedicated, 
 with fitting pomp, on December 26, 1891. 
 
 Gen. Stryker v»'as elected President of the NeAV Jersey 
 Historical Society, January 26, 1S97, and of the Society 
 of the Cincinnati in Ne.w Jersey, July 4, 1896. He w2,j 
 elected a Corresponding Member of the New-England 
 Plistoric Genealogical Society, September 6, 1882; was a 
 Fellow of the Royal Historical Society of London; was 
 one of the earliest members of the American Histori- 
 cal Association; a member of the New York Historical 
 
Society; the Historical Society of Penrsylvania; the 
 New York Genealogical and Biographical Society (since 
 1889) ; and was an honorary or active member of most 
 of the patriotic, hereditary and historical societies of this 
 country. Only two or three days before his death, al- 
 though suffering intcisely, he attended a meeting of the 
 Princeton Historical Association, of which he was Vice- 
 President, and m the success of which, as an offshoot of 
 his alma mater, he was deeply interested. 
 
 Such is the formal record of a busy life, full of duties 
 faithfully, zealously, efficiently performed. But what 
 words shall suffice to paint the m?n in m?.ke strangers 
 
 . . . . see him as he moved. 
 How modest, kiiiLDy. all-accomplished, wise, 
 .... thrr' aJJ (his tract of years 
 ■Wearing the white flower of a blameless life. 
 
 In person. General Stryker was nearly six feet in 
 height, with an erect, military bearing, well proportioned, 
 distinguished and strikingly handsome in appearance and 
 manner. Naturally diffident, he was nevertheless the per- 
 fection cf courtesy, and was a nost genial and delightful 
 host or companion. His spaciou.^ and elegant i-csidence 
 in Trenton was mainly a library, with the rest of the house 
 built around it. Plere he had entertained many of the 
 most noted men of the country: here he was most at his 
 ease, and here he had surrounded himself with one of the 
 larges. and most valuable collections of printed books and 
 manuscripts relating to American history to be found iu 
 any private library in the United States. 
 
 For thi unrjuiet heart and brain, 
 A use in measured language lies; 
 The sad mechanic exercise, 
 I^lke dull narcotics, numbing pain. 
 
 For one who had been honored with his warm persona' 
 friendship for nearly thirty years it is difficult to si-'H 
 up the principal characteristics of General Stryker -A^ith 
 
8 
 
 reasotiablc reserve. He was studious and scholarly in his 
 tastes; was attractive and entertaiijins;- to a rare degree 
 in social intercourse; was a sincere friend, and was an 
 ideal Christian g-entleman. His death, on October 29th, 
 1900, came as a ^reat personal bereavement to the people 
 of New Jersey, and thousands gathered from all parts of 
 the State to do honor to his memory, on the occasion of 
 his funeral, which was a remarkable mililary pageant. 
 By Special invitation of the New Jersey Legislature, the 
 Society oif the Cincinnati in that State held their semi- 
 annual meeting, February 22d, 1901, in the State House 
 at Trenton, and made it a memorial service to their late 
 president. On these various occasions it seemed as if 
 there came spontaneously to the tongue of every speaker 
 one epithet as peculiarly appropriate to the dead soldier, 
 statesman and scholar : 
 
 "Uti chevalier sans peur et sans reproche." 
 
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