The Maryland Center for Military History has a rare collection of photographs of Civil War soldiers, but they don’t know exactly who they are. The collection includes individual tintype photographs of every enlisted member of Company B, part of the 2nd Regiment Eastern Shore Infantry, which was organized in Chestertown between October and December 1861.
Calling on History Buffs and Genealogists
The center believes it is the only known surviving collection of its kind documenting an entire Civil War military company. Of the soldiers pictured in the collection, 1st Sgt. Alfred Benjamin is the only one who has been positively identified. The center has called on history buffs, genealogists, and anyone else with knowledge of the era to help put names to the faces.
Those with information about any of the men can contact the Maryland Center for Military History by visiting its website; emailing the center’s director, Barbara Taylor, at [email protected]; or sending physical mail to Fifth Regiment Armory, 219 29th Division Street, Baltimore, MD 21201.
The infantry members depicted in the photographs served across Maryland and Virginia during the Civil War, including in the Gettysburg Campaign and battles in the Shenandoah Valley. The photographs were all taken at the same place and time, shortly after the soldiers enlisted in Chestertown in late 1861.
Original reporting: Baltimore Fishbowl — read the source article.
