NEWELL ALBERT WATTS -- 153rd INFANTRYVIRGINIA -- LOUISIANA -- GEORGIA - The 153rd Infantry formed in Fonda, NY, in the fall of 1862, with Newell Albert Watts as one of its privates. Newell, who received a county bounty of \$100 for enlisting, was promoted to corporal during his year of serving as provost guard in Alexandria and Washington. In March 1864, his regiment was sent to Louisiana for three months to participate in the Red River Campaign. The 153rd was then recalled to the East and fought in the Shenandoah Valley. When Lee surrendered, the regiment was ordered to return to Washington and then to Savannah, GA, for more provost guard duties. They mustered out on October 2, 1865, and Newell returned to Mooers Forks.The Plattsburgh Sentinel carried his obituary on July 15, 1919 -- "After a prolonged illness of several months, on June 9th occurred the dearth of Newell Albert Watts of Mooers Forks. He was born in Beekmantown in the year 1837, to John Watts and Mary Burnham.When the Civil War broke out, the late Mr. Watts, in answer to his country's call, volunteered and on August 30, 1862, enlisted as a private in Company G, 153rd New York Regular Volunteers, being promoted to corporal in 1863. He saw intense service and all accompanying hardships and was honorably discharged on October 2, 1865.At the close of the war, he returned to his hometown and resumed the occupation of farming and sheep-buying in which he made a success; and in 1866, was married to his boyhood sweetheart, Miss Cornelia W. Brooks, a schoolteacher and daughter of the late Silas Brooks, a cabinet manufacturer of Mooers.Newell Watts was a man of sterling character, a loving husband and devoted father. About three years ago, he and his wife celebrated their golden wedding in company with the majority of their children. He is survived by his widow, five sons, Hubert F. of Mooers Forks, Russell A. and Silas J. of Springfield, MA, Norman I. and Harvey M. of Elmira, NY, and one daughter, Mrs. Lulu W. Fay, wife of John G. Fay, an officer at the Elmira Reformatory, with whom Mr. and Mrs. Watts lived for more than the last fifteen years."Cornelia died in 1923 and joined her husband in the Union Cemetery in Mooers Forks.
