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John
A. Ewing served in the Union Army during the Civil War as a
Private with Company D, Thirty-eighth New Jersey Infantry
Regiment. He enlisted on September 24, 1865. The
Thirty-eighth New Jersey Infantry was commanded by then Colonel William
Joyce Sewell, with Lieutenant Colonel Ashbel W. Angel and
Major William H. Tantum serving under him. This regiment was
raised in the summer and fall of 1864, Colonel Sewell
accepting its command on September 30 and completing its organization
in 15 days thereafter. Colonel Sewell
had served with distinguished credit in the Second New
Jersey brigade, but had been compelled to quit the service
during the Wilderness campaign, owing to prostration
resulting from exposure. Partially recovering, however, and
with his patriotic ardor unabated, he gladly embraced the
opportunity afforded by the formation of the Thirty-eighth
to return to the field, employing all his energies to make
it an organization worthy of the state. Upon leaving the
state, the regiment was ordered to City Point and thence to
Bermuda Hundred, whence it was sent to Fort Powhatan, on
the James River, some 15 miles below City Point. It
remained at that point until the surrender of Lee, when it was
ordered to City Point and there mustered out, reaching Trenton
on July 4, 1865. The total strength of the regiment was
1,048, and it lost during its term of service, by resignation
6, by discharge 2, by promotion 9, by transfer 3, by death
11, by desertion 59, mustered out, 956. The
38th New Jersey was only involved in combat on one occasion,
November 7, 1864 at Petersburg, Virginia. The regiment was
utilized to garrison Forts Pocahontas and Fort Powhatan on the
James River. While no casualties are recorded from combat, John
A. Ewing from Company D stated in 1890 that he had been taken
prisoner and had spent three months at Libby Prison in Richmond On
April 22, 1866 John A. Ewing married Sarah Emma Angelow at
Bridgeport, New Jersey. A daughter, Anna Jane, was born around
1869. On September 23, 1891 Anna Jane Ewing married Heister
S. Hunter, engine inspector of the Reading Railroad. The young
couple made their home in Reading, Pennsylvania. Sadly, Mrs.
Hunter died in Philadelphia of typhoid fever on February 20,
1907, survived by her husband and daughters Helen and Ethel. John
A. Ewing was living in Camden's Eight Ward by 1878, at 1734
Ferry Avenue. He was then working as a core maker. This was his
address when the Census was taken in 1880. The household
consisted of John A. Ewing, his wife Sarah and eleven year old
daughter Anna. John A. Ewing was then working as a baggage
master for the Philadelphia & Atlantic City Railroad, a
position he held through the spring of 1883. While the 1881-1882 City
Directories show him living at 1710 Broadway,
the correct address appears to have been 1810 Broadway.
By the spring of
1883 John A. Ewing moved to 1810 Broadway, which would be his
home through 1922. The
1887-1888 Camden City Directory shows John A. Ewing working as a
carpenter. By the summer of 1888 John A. Ewing went to work at
the oilcloth works of John C. Dunn & Company at South 7th
and Jefferson Streets. On July 1, 1890 John A. Ewing was given
the position of houseman at Engine Company
3. He kept this
position until 1922. On
September
24, 1891, John A. Ewing's daughter, Anna, married Heister S.
Hunter, an employee of the Reading Railroad, in Camden. Hunters
initially made their home in Reading, Pennsylvania. They later
moved to Philadelphia. By 1894 he had gone to work at the Farr
& Bailey Manufacturing Company's plant at South 7th Street
and Kaighn Avenue. He stayed with Farr & Bailey though at
least 1914. By June of 1918 John A Ewing had gone to work in one
of Camden's nearby shipyards, most likely the New York
Shipbuilding Company yard at 2500 Broadway. Sarah
Ewing passed away in 1922. John
A. Ewing subsequently sold his home and moved to Philadelphia to
live his granddaughter.
He died January 12, 1928 and was buried at Harleigh Cemetery in
Camden..
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