Two African-American Brothers in the US Civil War

Question

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!

Comments

See also: Civilwardata and here https://civilwardata.com/active/hdsquery.dll?SoldierHistory?U&143489 

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Andrew, you'd think Abraham Zachariah, or its reverse, is too unusual a name to be duplicated, but I think it was.  The record I cited is of someone who joined in Connecticut and later died in Pennsylvania, while the civilwardata file you showed is someone who joined in Indiana and was discharged in New York.  The Connecticut one was married to Angelina, and I know that the Zachariah A. Patterson I'm researching was married to Angelina Caliman.

Answer 1

Based on the Civil War pension index, it looks like the same Zachariah, as the one in the 1st Connecticut had a widow named Angelina: https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/2065998:4654?tid=&pid=&queryId=d58a60ff-84f1-47bb-8d4c-1b8c468cf11e&_phsrc=xcT3186&_phstart=successSource

(Unless you're basing your Zachariah marrying Angelina based on the pension card!)

The pension file itself would give you a lot more detail.

BTW, "Trans." in the record you have linked is short for "transferred," not transportation.

Comments

Thanks Amy.  We know from other sources that he married
Angelina Caliman, so this fits.  

Is there a place online where one can get the whole pension file?  Or who would have it?

One thing I'm wondering is -- do we have enough unit information to know, assuming he was with the unit the whole time, where they marched and where they fought?

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You can order the pension file through the National Archives or hire a private researcher to get the file for you. 

As far as the troop movements, there's a brief history of the 1st Connecticut here. There are likely other unit histories either in print or online. To be more precise, you could also obtain his Compiled Military Service Record (CMSR) from the National Archives. The CMSR would likely also tell you details about his age, birthplace, and physical description. 

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Thanks.  A good lesson on the importance of checking detail -- the 1stConnecticut volunteers -- "three month men" were active April 18612-July 31 1861.  However, Zachariah's entry refers to a 2 year period of December 1863 to December 1865.  So obviously more information is needed to make sense of this!