Motivated by Flickr Success

Motivated by two recent successful image identifications on Flickr,* I've started hunting for other unidentified soldiers in my holdings. Today I scanned in a carte added to my collection before the Internet went mainstream. The image, pictured here, is identified as J. Frank Monroe, alias Charles Wallack. No unit identification is present. My efforts many years ago to confirm his identity failed, and I filed the image away.

I scanned the image this morning and planned to post it on Flickr in the Unidentified Veterans set. In preparation to write the caption, I did a search on Ancestry.com and quickly learned that he was drafted in 1864 and served in the First Connecticut Infantry.

Monroe/Wallack is now posted in the Current Soldiers Under Research set.

What a difference technology makes! I look forward to learning more about him.

* The two Flickr postings are a confirmed identification of Capt. John Huey Weeks of the Ninety-first Pennsylvania Infantry and a tentative confirmation of Capt. William Hydorn Jr. of the Ninety-seventh New York State National Guard.

The Mystery of William Hydorn Jr.

This Civil War era carte de visite, identified in period pen as William Hydorn Jr., has been in my possession for years. The inscription does not include the unit in which he served. I've never been able to link him to a military organization. His name (using this spelling or variations) does not appear on any federal rolls, and is curiously absent from databases online and at the National Archives. I've speculated that he may have served under an alias, or perhaps his record is misfiled, mislaid, or listed under an alternative spelling with which I am not familiar.

Recently I posted this image on Flickr, hoping to make a connection. Late last week, Sam Small of The Horse Soldier in Gettysburg contacted me. He had recently purchased a Union captain's coat and a sword. He had the saber professionally cleaned, which revealed an inscription: William Heydorne. Eventually his online search results led to my Flickr posting.

Turns out the sword is an exact match with the one held by the soldier in this image, and the rather narrow shoulder straps on the uniform coat in Sam Small's possession also line up with the coat worn by this officer.

Since then, I have been obsessed with discovering this man's military service record. Yesterday I made the first connection that aligns the information on this carte with a record: Capt. William Hydorn, Company F. Ninety-seventh Regiment, Tenth Brigade, Third Division, New York National Guard. His rank dates to Dec. 24, 1864. His residence is Grafton. This information from the Annual Report of the Adjutant General of the State of New York (1866, Vol. 1).

This is a promising lead, and I am currently seeking more information.

My working theory is that this is William Willard Hydorn Jr. (1837-1874) of Grafton, N.Y., who served in the Ninety-seventh New York State National Guard. Commanded by Col. Schuyler Greenman, the 500-man regiment served the state from late 1864 until it disbanded in 1868. The unit never mustered for federal service.