ID DISK BELONGING TO ELIAS EBAUGH – 6TH MARYLAND INFANTRY

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Item Code: 998-597

During the Civil War, soldiers were concerned that their bodies would not be identified in the aftermath of a battle because neither the Union nor Confederate government issued identification tags, commonly called “dog tags” today.  Consequently, many soldiers would write their name on a piece of paper and pin it to their clothing or scratch their name into the soft lead of their belt buckle. On May 3, 1862, a New Yorker named John Kennedy wrote to U.S. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton offering to manufacture and supply all Federal army soldiers a “name disc.” The Army rejected the idea, and so it was sutlers – civilian merchants who followed the armies selling tobacco, coffee, sugar and other goods directly to the soldiers, who satisfied the soldiers’ desire for identification tags. Using a small machine that would stamp designs into metal discs, the sutlers created the first “dog tags” used by soldiers fighting on American soil.  Very few of these identification tags for Confederate soldiers have been found.  The sutlers’ primary market were Union soldiers who typically possessed the resources to purchase such ID devices.

This zinc disk measures 3 cm. in diameter. One side of disk shows a likeness of General George B. McClellan with what appears to be McClellan’s name, reverse side has the soldier’s name, “E. EBAUGH / CO. A. 6. REG. MD.V / WESTMINSTER MD.”. A hole was punched into the top of the tag for a piece of cord or string to pass through to wear around the neck. Disk shows light corrosion and chipping on edges but much of the lettering can still be read.

Elias Ebaugh enlisted on 8/11/1862 as a private. On 8/11/1862 he mustered into Co. “A”, 6th Maryland Infantry. He was mustered out on 6/20/1865 at Washington, DC.

The 6th Maryland was organized at Baltimore, MD on 8/12/62. The unit mustered out on 6/20/65 at Washington, DC. Officers killed or mortally wounded: 8, officers died of disease, accidents, etc.: 1. Enlisted men killed or mortally wounded: 120. Enlisted men died of disease, accidents, etc.: 107.  [SL]

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