U.S. Army Command Sgt. Maj. Paul Vicinus, command sergeant major for the Connecticut National Guard's 169th Regiment (Regional Training Institute), describes the military honors about to be provided for Pvt. Stephen Newton, a civil war veteran, during a celebration of life ceremony for the Newton family at Evergreen Cemetary in New Haven, Conn. June 21, 2024. The ceremony was the culmination of a restoration and research project by John Mills, the founder of the Alex Breanne Corporation, which also unveiled the restored grave marker of Newton’s parents, Thaddeus, a former slave, and Mary, a free woman, who worked with prominent abolitionists like Henry Ward Beecher and Henry Highland Garnet to secure the funds needed to purchase the freedom of Thaddeus and many other enslaved families in the South.