He fled the city and wound up in New Haven, Conn. By this time the Emancipation Proclamation and congressional acts enabled black men to join the army. Newton enlisted in the 29th Connecticut Infantry in December 1863.The regiment soon reported to South Carolina. Newton noted, “I was in the full realization of what it meant to be again in the South, not a cringing black man, but a proud American soldier with the Union and Old Glory behind, before, over and under me.”
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