I am in the midst of developing expanded profiles for Robert Patterson, a free African-American collier at the Catoctin Furnace, Maryland, in the 19th century. Two of his sons enlisted in the civil war, and I am seeking to understand the service abbreviations I've found and where they may have actually served. Both sons had full names -- Zachariah Abraham and William Henry -- and appear to have gone by their middle names until they enlisted, at which point their records use their first names.
Both were enumerated for the draft in Frederick County, Maryland in 1863: Abraham Patterson, age 26, colored, laborer, and Henry Patterson, age 21, colored, laborer.
Zachariah A. went on to serve in Company C, First Regiment, Connecticut Volunteer Cavalry as a Private from December 8, 1863 to December 11, 1865. The record of the Adjutent General of Connecticut adds that he enlisted and mustered in December 8, 1863 in Transportation, 41st company, 2nd Battalion; he was in the Veteran Reserve Corps on April 22, 1865 and transferred to the 159th Company, 2nd Batt, V. R. C, August 17, 1865. The information comes from the Pennsylvania Veterans Department listing his service and later, death in Pennsylvania, in the place where he lived with his family from Maryland.
Henry served in the 41st Colored Infantry as a Corporal, then Sergeant. While not stated in the displayed record itself, Ancestry goes on to show this Henry born 1841 in Frederick, Maryland, and enlisted in New Jersey 6 October 1864.
I'm normally quite suspicious of people using first and middle names alternately, and of people who appear in different locations than I expect. But there seems enough information here to tie them together. In addition, a known fact for this family is that they were light complexioned and some (but not all) members were "colored" in Maryland and "white" when they moved to Pennsylvania. Therefore it can't be excluded that one brother served in a white unit and theother in a colored unit in the Civil War. Links to the sources of the information I've gathered so far are on Henry's profile.
This is very much a work in progress and I know others know much more than I about civil war units, who were members of them, and where their wartime travels took them.
Any further information that anyone could find or deduce would be most appreciated!