Harvard Graduation Portrait for Henry P. Bowditch, 1st & 5th Massachusetts Cavalry Regiments

Harvard Graduation Portrait for Henry P. Bowditch, 1st & 5th Massachusetts Cavalry Regiments. Also signed and includes a smaller portrait photo of him in later years.

The page is approximately 9.5 x 13, with the albumen image tipped in within an oval vignette. He signed below, “H.P. Bowditch / Boston.” The later image is 3 7/8 x 5 1/2 inches.  The image was taken near the time of his graduation from Harvard in 1861.

Bowditch enlisted into the the 1st Mass Cavalry in November of 1861 as a 2nd Lieutenant.  The 1st Mass Cavalry was present at the Battle of Gettysburg, protecting the Union Army’s supply lines.  He was discharged for disability in February of 1864, due to his being wounded in battle at New Hope Church, Va. on November 27, 1863 (he led the charge in that engagement and was shot in the right forarm).

In May, 1864, Bowditch was commissioned as a major in the 5th Mass. Cavalry, an all Black unit accept for its officers.  The regiment took part in heavy fighting in the later stages of the Petersburg Campaign and were one of the first regiments to enter the Confederate capital of Richmond. Bowditch resigned in June of 1865, and then renewed his medical education.

The images are fine quality.