Two Brother's

Two Brothers

I was told the sword belonged to William Lewis Tanner. He fought in the Civil War for the North, which meant, according to the story, his brother had to have fought for the south.  

As I started doing research, this information was quickly proven wrong.  William Lewis Tanner did indeed fight for the North.  He volunteered to the Connecticut Cavalry, 1st Regiment Company B on August 11, 1862.  He was about 5 feet 6 inches tall, had black eyes, dark hair and a dark complexion.  He had been at sea for the previous year as a sailor. 
  

But his younger brother, Norman Alexander Tanner had also joined the North.  He first joined the 27^th Connecticut Infantry, Company H where he was captured at Chancellorsville, Virginia on May 3, 1863, and held as a prisoner of war until May 14, 1863, not even two weeks.  His service then ended July 27, 1863, and he re-enlisted into the 1^st Regiment, Connecticut Heavy Artillery where he served until the end of the war.

William was also captured and held as a prisoner of war.  On October 17, 1864, while on picket duty he was captured at the Battle of Cedar Creek and held prisoner until about March 1, 1865.  As far as the easy records to research goes, both were released, but I have recently learned there are other records I can look through that may have more information. I will need to make a road trip to Washington though to look them up myself because you can’t just order it. This story was originally told to us by Van Buren Lamb, who is the nephew of both William and Norman.  Van Buren grew up in Connecticut living with his parents and his uncle Norman until Norman died in 1920.  I am interested in finding out if this story about one of the brothers helping his brother escape is true or not, but until then, there is still more research to be done.
(This information was obtained from William's Official Pension file and Service record held at the NARA and Norman's Service Record also from the NARA.  I have copies of all three in my possession).
[Also, I realize that the picture of Norman says it was taken in Philadelphia and he never lived in Philadelphia, but it was labeled Norman Tanner from Van Buren Lamb (who knew him).  I am anxious to see the back again to see if it has a middle name and double check that it is not an uncle with the same name who was living in Pennsylvania.]