Vignetted bust-length albumen CDV portrait of 1st Lt. William Henry Harrison Wooster, Co. E, 6th Connecticut Infantry. N.p., ca late 1864-1865. Unmarked.

In this clear image, the photographer captured Lieutenant Wooster's intense, focused gaze. Wooster is wearing his uniform jacket with his first lieutenant straps clearly visible. A X Corps badge is also proudly displayed on his uniform.

Wooster (1840-1919) enlisted on 23 August 1861 as a first lieutenant and was commissioned 17 days later into Company E of the 6th Connecticut Infantry. The regiment joined Sherman's Expedition to Port Royal and captured Fort Walker and Beauregard on November 7th. They were stationed in South Carolina, but for reasons unknown, he resigned his commission on 23 March 1862. He married Anna Louise Putnam (1841-1927) at the start of the war on 26 August 1861, and perhaps the lure of the home front became too strong. While at home, the couple welcomed their first of five children on 5 December 1863. Shortly thereafter, he rejoined his same company and regiment, this time as a private, on 28 February 1864. His experience soon earned him promotions to second lieutenant (1 March 1864) and again to quartermaster, followed by his previous rank as first lieutenant on 31 October 1864. 

His second enlistment saw the regiment, now part of the X Corps, join the Siege of Petersburg, where it saw action at the Second Battle of Deep Bottom, the Battle of Chaffin's Farm and New Market Heights, the Battle of Fair Oaks and Darbytown Road, and the Second Battle of Fort Fisher. Although unmarked, we can confidently date this portrait to after 31 October 1864, when Wooster was promoted to first lieutenant. He proudly displays a badge of the X Corps, which was not formed until after his first discharge. Mustering out of his regiment on 21 August 1865, he returned to his family in Connecticut, working at the Seymour Manufacturing Company, a local textile mill.

This portrait highlights the resoluteness that could be found amongst soldiers of all ranks.

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