UNION, NJ — The Union Township Historical Society invites people to meet author Jack Zackin to hear about his latest book, learn more about our first civil war — between the Tories and the Whigs — and add to your knowledge of the Battles of Connecticut Farms aka Union and Springfield.
The talk will be hosted on Sunday, March 10, at 2 p.m., at Connecticut Farms Presbyterian Church, 888 Stuyvesant Ave., Union. Refreshments will be served and copies of the book will be available for purchase. Admission is free.
Zackin was raised in West Orange and graduated the University of Virginia in 1971, with bachelor’s degree magna cum laude in government and foreign affairs. In 1974, he earned a juris doctorate from UVA School of Law.
After clerking for a federal judge and spending two years as a counsel for the U.S. House of Representatives, Zackin returned to New Jersey to practice law for more than 30 years, specializing in Chapter 11 corporate reorganization cases.
Zackin now resides in West Orange with his wife, Freda. They have two daughters, Emily and Abby, and two grandsons, Jonah and Sidney. Currently, Zackin is retired, spending time reading histories and detective fiction and hiking in South Mountain Reservation with his labradoodle, Ozzie.
Zackin’s second novel, “A Revolutionary Journey: From Colonial Doctor to American Spy,” opens in 1765, when 14-year-old Sidney Foster, a London orphan, signs on as ship’s boy for a voyage to New York. He becomes the ward of a British doctor seeking a new life in Newark. As he comes of age, Sidney witnesses and participates in events that strained relations between Britain and its American colonies.
A practicing physician in Newark at the outbreak of the Revolution, Sidney becomes a Patriot secret agent, posing as a Tory, serving as regimental surgeon in the NJ Volunteers – loyalists fighting for the British in New Jersey and New York. The book is a tribute to the author’s meticulous research on the colonial and Revolutionary periods — focusing on Essex County and brings to life famous historical figures. It also paints a vivid picture of ordinary Americans before and during the Revolutionary War. Other highlights include the civil war between Tories and Whigs in New Jersey, the horrendous treatment of American prisoners of war in British prisons and the crucial battles of Connecticut Farms, now Union and Springfield.