Joe Bilby's Biography

Joseph G. Bilby was born in Newark, New Jersey. He received his BA and MA degrees in history from Seton Hall University and served as a lieutenant in the First Infantry Division in Vietnam. Mr. Bilby is Supervising Investigator of the New Jersey Department of Labor’s Central Investigation Office, has taught military history on the community college level and lectured widely on the Civil War. He is the author of over 250 articles on New Jersey and military history and Outdoor subjects and is a columnist for The Civil War News and New Jersey Sportsmen’s News and contributing editor for Military Images Magazine. He has appeared on the History Channel's Civil War Journal and the Discovery Channel's Discovery Magazine as an expert consultant on the Civil War and 19th century firearms and wrote the liner notes for David Kincaid’s Civil War music CD album The Irish Volunteer and Kincaid’s forthcoming Irish American’s Song. Mr. Bilby was a Panelist for the NJ Historical Commission's 1996 seminar on Civil War Studies, and is a Trustee of the NJ Civil War Heritage Association and member of the Development Board of The Robert E. Lee Civil War Round Table's Library and Research Center.

Since the publication of the first edition of Three Rousing Cheers: A History of the 15th New Jersey Infantry from Flemington to Appomattox, in 1992, Mr. Bilby has written Forgotten Warriors: New Jersey's African-American Civil War Soldiers, Remember Fontenoy: The 69th New York and the Irish Brigade In the Civil War and co-edited My Sons Were Faithful and They Fought: The Irish Brigade At Antietam, all published by Longstreet House, Hightstown, NJ. He received a grant from the New Jersey Historical Commission to assist in the research for Three Rousing Cheers, and Forgotten Warriors received a publication grant from the same institution. Remember Fontenoy was awarded the 1997 William Donovan Award for Excellence in Military Literature and, in a softbound edition as The Irish Brigade in the Civil War, published by Combined Publications, Conshohocken PA, was a Military Book Club selection. Mr. Bilby's Civil War Firearms, published by Combined as well, was also a Military Book Club selection, runner-up in the history category in the 1997 Small Press Book Awards and received the Louisiana State University Civil War Center's Award of Excellence. His most recent book is Remember You Are Jerseymen: A Military History of New Jersey’s Troops in the Civil War, co-authored with William C. Goble and published by Longstreet House. He has recently contributed to the forthcoming Encylopedia of New Jersey (Rutgers University Press) and a second, expanded, edition of his history of the 15^th New Jersey Infantry is scheduled for publication in the fall of 2000.

Mr. Bilby is a member of the Outdoor Writers Association of America, the Irish Brigade Association, The Society of the First Infantry Division and the North-South Skirmish Association's 69th New York. He lives at the New Jersey shore with his wife and three children.