West-Jersey pioneer., 1877-10-25
A TOUCHING INCIDENT OF THE WAR.

A TOUCHING INCIDENT OF THE WAR.
There were number of people who OBJ
tained great regulations as 'friends of the
soldiers during and after the war, but
there was not one who gave more earnest
and tireless service to the soldiers of New
Jersey, who labored to promote their well
fare, to relieve them of their hardships,
and to perform for them the thousand and
one offices of kindness which they stood in
need Of with greater zeal than Governor
Newell. He made no parade of his services,
to catch the applause of men. 1t was la
Dor of love with him. He had profound
sense of the value of the sacrifices they
were making for their country. His whole
heart deeply sympathized with them in
their hardships and privations, and he was
always ready to make any sacrifice of time,
of money and of personal comfort and self
interest, to do anything for them. For four
years he was more at Washington than at
home, engaged almost exclusively in labori-
GUS services in behalf of New Jersey SOL
diers. And he did it all quietly and without
ostentation, purely out of his love and
reverence for his heroic fellow Jerseymen.
A very touching incident of this charac-
ter, and one which is remembered with the
deepest gratitude by a large number of Jer-
sey Boys in Blue, is related by an old SOL
dier, in the Jersey City Journal. AS one
of the most thrilling and pathetic incidents
of the war we give it entire. The writer
says: ....
During the war there were always good
many soldiers in Washington who had got
into trouble, and New Jersey had her share
of them, though the Jersey boys felt pretty
safe if Gov. Newell, then a Congressman,
was in the city. Many a soldier got good
square meal at Newell's table, while he told
his troubles to sympathetic listener, to
whom the blue coat was always good
enough letter of introduction, particularly
when it held a Jerseyman. Newell was a
personal friend of Lincoln, before his emf
nence marked him for the assassin's hand,
and the Governor attended ''Little Willie"
while in his last illness. Either in his Ca
pacity of friend or physician, the Governor
was frequent visitor at the White House,
and thus oftentimes an intercessor for some
Jerseyman who needed friend at court.
Nothing that he did at that time for those
who were proud to call him friend requires
the mantle of charity, or need be hid or for
gotten. His influence could not be obtained
for money or moth contracts. One of the
occasions on which he used his influence
will go down to posterity as one of the most
touching incidents in. the history of the war.
1t grew out of his efforts in behalf of Cor
neil Abrahams, one of the boys who enlist
ed in 1861. He was the eldest SO of a far
mer, who lived near the Blue Ball. Mon
mouth County. During the early Winter
of 1868, Cornell tried very hard to get fur
| Tough because his letters from home an
nounced the illness of his mother. He
| thought over the life long kindness of his
mother, until his eyes would fill and sobs
choke his utterance. He felt that he must
see her again before she died, or live life
time of regret. Every instance in which he
had crossed her or disobeyed her rose fresh
in his memory, magniied by the intensity
of his feelings, while he could only remem-
ber her uniform and affectionate gentleness.
He made final effort to obtain furlougl
just before the holidays of '63, determined
to go home anyway whether he got it Oh
not. Another letter from home, more des-
pondent than its predecessors, dissipated
his doubts, and his place in camp was va.
cant. A couple of days after he reached
home, he was arrested at Blue Ball, for he
made no pretence of hiding and was easily
captured. He was sent back to his regi
ment A couple of weeks of anxious sus
pense passed slowly for his parents, wher
they received a letter informing them that
he had been tried by court martial, found
guilty of desertion, and condemned to bt
shot. When the letter arrived, there re-
mained but two days before the date for hi.
execution. His family were overwhelmed
with grief and distress. To think that the
favorite son and brother was in the army
exposed to death in thousand ways at any
moment tinged every joy with sadness; but
to know that time had been fixed for hi.
/ fignominious death, and that within forty
eight hours, was horrible. Despair tot
; deep for tears settled on the household, ant
the hand of fate seemed to have inscribed
on the portal, "All hope abandoned, ye wht
enter here" Stupefed by the impending
disaster, no ray of hope seemed possible
until some one suggested a visit to DR.
Newell. The old man grasped the idea a
drowning man clutches straw, ant
though it was twenty miles to Newelps res
dence, the agonized father was there befor'
dark, and in few minutes his story wa
told. In an hour Gov. Newell was on hi
way to Washington. The usual Grove
waited for an audience with the Presiden
when the Governor reached the Whit
House, and many were personally acquaint
ed with him. Some one inquired the cause