OCEAN CITY, Md. — Dozens of photographs of Eastern Shore soldiers are on display at the Roland Powell Convention Center in Ocean City on Thursday and Friday.
The photographs are part of a rare collection of the enlisted members of Company B, 2nd Regiment, Maryland Eastern Shore Volunteers, and have remained together for more than 150 years.
Now, the Maryland National Guard and the Maryland Center for Military History are asking for help in putting names to the faces in the tintype photographs.
The collection is believed to be the only known surviving collection of its kind documenting an entire Civil War military company.
Only one of the pictured soldiers has been identified: 1st Sgt. Alfred Benjamin, shown below.
While the Maryland National Guard has a list of the names of the others, they're asking for help from history buffs, genealogists, and the public to match the names to the faces.
The company was part of the 2nd Regiment Eastern Shore Infantry and was organized in Chestertown in late 1861.
These soldiers served throughout Maryland and Virginia during the war, including in the Gettysburg Campaign and in the Shenandoah Valley.
The company was ordered to Baltimore in June 1863 when Confederate forces advanced into Maryland and Pennsylvania.
You can find more information here:
