The 14th was one of Indiana’s most heavily fought regiments. They did it all! Starting at Cheat Mountain in ’61 to Winchester, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor… and our I.D. Tags owner was in them all! Enlisting on 6/7/61, William E. Summers, age 20, served all three years, mustering out with the regiment. The I.D. is half dollar size with bust of McClellan and “War of 1861, Major General Geo. B. McClellan” at the top with battles listed below. Usually on excavated examples of this style of I.D., the battles cannot be read. However, on this tag there is just enough gold to make them standout. The battles listed are: Winchester, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville. That is all there was room for and Summers probably purchased the I.D. tag from his sutler during the end of May or first part of June 1863. This means that Summers was probably wearing this tag at Gettysburg! We know that he had not lost the tag until June of 1864, when he was in the battle of Cold Harbor, Virginia, as that was where it was excavated! On the side where his name is stamped we read, “W. E. Summers, Co. F, 14th Ind. Vols., Terrehute, Ind.” This is one great Army of the Potomac I.D. Tag!
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