The Maryland Center for Military History has a rare collection of photographs of Civil War soldiers.
There’s just one problem: 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.
The center, which works to preserve the history of the Maryland National Guard and state military members, 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. As for the rest, well, that’s anyone’s guess.
The center does have a list of names for the remaining soldiers, but they have yet to be able to match those names to the individual photographs.
They hope that’s where members of the public will come in. The center has called on history buffs, genealogists, and anyone else with knowledge of the era to help put names to the faces.
If individuals recognize a family name, have an old family photograph, possess genealogical records, or can offer any other information to help name the unidentified faces, the center wants to hear about it.
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 Barbara.Taylor@maryland.gov; or sending physical mail to Fifth Regiment Armory, 219 29th Division Street, Baltimore, MD 21201.
If you want to see the collection in person, it will be on display Aug. 13 and 14 at the 2026 Maryland Association of Counties Summer Conference in Ocean City.
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. They have remained together for more than a century and a half.
Here are their names and other information:
