Rare Photo of Drummer Boy and his Family

Claude Bauer

First Sergeant
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Joined
Jan 8, 2012
Came across this rare picture of a drummer boy with his family--brother, sister, mother and father. Dad's in uniform too, and it looks like the brother might be wearing some kind of uniform jacket as well--another drummer boy perhaps? Not many pictures of entire families with members in the military--no ID for it however. Hope they all made it through.

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Is there anything we can tell about them from clues in the picture? It would be great to figure out who they are.
Maybe a uniforms expert can tell by their coats what state they're from. Those ribbons the boys are wearing might be a clue too, but I have no idea what they are. And that would just tell where they're from, nothing about them personally.
 
Probable Identification here:

Two soldiers, John Burton and son with drum, in Union uniforms with wife and younger girl and boy Bowdoin, Taylor & Co. 204 King, Cor. Columbus Street, Alexandria, Va


 
The drum is key to unit. I can see the __ REG. Infantry. Still it is a fascinating image, with much detail.
There were 19 regular U.S. Infantry regiments during the ACW. I don't know if the service records of Regulars are online anywhere; they're not at fold3. If they were, it should be possible to find which of them had a drummer named Burton.

The source linked in Post #9 had some genealogical information on John Burton's family, but not his military unit.
 
Looks like such drums may have been used by State regiments also. The Echoes of Glory series "Arms and Equipment of the Union" shows one used by the 27th Massachusetts on page 239. Like the one in the book, the drum in the photo does not appear to have an regiment number filled in. Perhaps because they were not US Infantry?
 
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