A sergeant stands with his right hand resting in the canton of the U.S. banner. The leather cross-belt flag holder he wears reveals that he served as a color sergeant, an honor for any volunteer soldier. Though his name is currently lost in time, the simple backdrop, photographer’s imprint and style of the card-stock mount connect him to the 108th U.S. Colored Infantry.
An album of cartes de visite of men from the regiment’s Company F is in Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. First Lieutenant Theodore Wright had presented the album to his mother, Sarah Augusta Wright. Most of the men in the album are identified.
Organized at Louisville, Ky., in June 1864, the 108th guarded prisoners of war at Rock Island, Ill., between January and May 1865. Men and officers mustered out in March 1866.
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