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Sergeant Henry F. Steward

Sergeant Henry F. Steward Hand-colored ambrotype
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Hand-colored ambrotype, 1863

10.5 cm x 8 cm

From the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment photographs

Photo. 2.162 (also Photo. 72.9)


[ This description is from the project: Witness to America's Past ]

A twenty-three year old farmer from Adrian, Michigan, Henry Steward1 enlisted on 4 April 1863 and was mustered in on April 23. Steward served as a non-commissioned officer and was actively engaged in the recruiting of soldiers for the regiment. He died of disease at the regimental hospital on Morris Island, South Carolina, on 27 September 1863, and his estate was paid a $50 state bounty.2

Standing at attention with his sword drawn in this full-length study, Steward is posed in front of a plain backdrop, but a portable column has been wheeled in to add detail on the left. Hand-colored trousers and buttons highlight the uniform in this ambrotype of Sergeant Steward.

1. 1894, p.131, lists him as Henry Stewart, however his roster of enlisted men, p.362, as well as Mass. 1931, 4:684, spells the surname Steward.

2. Luis F. Emilio. History of the Fifty-fourth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, 1863-1865. 2d ed. Boston, 1894, pp.131, 362.