RIO GRANDE – Veterans joined representatives of the Department of Veterans Affairs and others on Friday, Nov. 8, to celebrate Andrew Jackson Tomlin, a sergeant in the Marine Corps during the Civil War, who became the first member of the Wall of Honor established at the VA’s Cape May Community Based Outpatient Clinic.
Descendants of the Civil War veteran and Goshen resident, who received the Congressional Medal of Honor, also attended the ceremony.
According to an inscription posted under his image, Tomlin served with distinction while a corporal aboard the USS Wabash during an attack on Fort Fisher, now Kure Beach, North Carolina, on Jan. 15, 1865. He was one of 200 marines holding a line of entrenchments in the rear of the fort and maintained his position until morning, when relief troops arrived.
The inscription on his photo reads, “When one of his comrades was struck down by enemy fire, he advanced under fire of musketry into a plain to assist the wounded man to a place of safety.”
For his efforts, Tomlin was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military honor.
According to Marine Corps veteran William Davenport, Tomlin’s Medal of Honor now hangs in the U.S. Marine Corps Museum in Quantico, Virginia. Davenport came across Tomlin’s name while doing research for the “Welcome Home Veterans” radio program he does with Joe Griffees.
“A search to find his grave led me to St. Bab’s Church and cemetery in Goshen, and while there, Will Keenan, owner of the property, shared several articles prepared by the Cape May County Historical Society and his own personal knowledge of Tomlin,” Davenport said.
He said that after Tomlin’s second enlistment in the Marines, he returned to his hometown of Goshen. He served as Cape May County sheriff, commissioner of juries, and Middle Township commissioner. At the time of his death in 1905, he was postmaster in Goshen.
Tomlin and his wife, Sarah, had one daughter, Judith.
Davenport said that over the last several years he contacted as many Tomlins as he could find and spoke to a longtime friend from Wildwood Crest, Matt Tomlin. Matt Tomlin said his son, also Matt, was doing some ancestry research on the Tomlin family and had found a connection to the Civil War veteran.
Attending the ceremony Friday were Matt Tomlin, 88, his sister, Dorothy Tomlin, 76, Matt Tomlin’s son Matt and his wife, Janice, and their children, Colleen, Darlene, Matt and Mark.
Matt Tomlin Sr. lived in West Wildwood from 1950 to 1961, when he moved to Wildwood Crest, where he still lives. He is a retired school business administrator who worked for the Ocean City School District for 10 years, and he spent 21 years with the Cape May County Technical School District. He served as a Wildwood Crest commissioner from 2001 to 2005.
He was also a member of the New Jersey National Guard from 1959 to 1966.
Dorothy Tomlin retired as the municipal clerk for West Wildwood, where she still lives.
Davenport said the Wall of Honor, one of at least three in South Jersey, was several years in the making. He said he hopes this will be just the first of many dedications to local military heroes.
Contact the reporter, Christopher South, at csouth@cmcherald.com or 609-886-8600, ext. 128.
