Very unusal button/in confederate camp found today??Help PBK

[Rebel Man]

Found this weird button in a camp I been workin for a year now. I believe this has been identified as a New York Fire Chiefs Button. What in the he$#@ is this doin in a confederate camp?? This is strange, if anyone has any ideas on this one please let me know.
Thanks
Rebel Man back in the woods & fields
Oh by the way it measures in circumference 1".25 across and concave with no makers mark and with a shank. Note: the word fire above his hat, holding a smudge pot with smoke coming out of it, mega phone or horn to his mouth on the run!! Enjoy

[BamaBill]

Sometimes you find civilian items in an area that you've established as a military camp, because the terrain that made it a good military camp also made it a good camp for anybody of the period, and over a 200+ year period, who knows how many people have used that spot to overnight in? I assume its a slightly elevated area that's well drained and has water and a source of wood nearby? If so, anybody would have seen it as a good spot.

[PBK]

As previously posted in another thread:


The Big Book of Buttons by Hughes & Lester lists this button as follows:

EARLY FIRE ASSOCIATION BUTTON, circa 1825-35
The button bears the device of a fireman running in stove-pipe hat, carrying an oil torch to light his way through the streets, and shouting 'Fire' through his speaking horn. One piece brass, slightly convex; reverse: "Scovills Waterbury."

At the time of the book's publication in 1981, this button was valued at $75. Most prices in the book have at least doubled since that time.

A number of late 18th to mid 19th century fire insurance companies reportedly used similar "running fireman" logos, including the Friendship Fire Company of Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Fire Association, and the Associated Fireman's Company of Baltimore.

[CWnut]

As bamabill stated, good campsites were used by both sides as armies advanced and retreated--and also civilians.

New York City in the early years used "fire watchers" whose duty it was to patrol the streets at night and sound the alarm if they discovered fire. Due to construction materials and lack of codes during the early years it was not uncommon for a whole city block, or more, to burn

[CenterHit]

Confederate soldiers used what they had on hand sometimes. They where not as well equipped as the Union army. They were not all in great grey coats. Its common to find sportsman and civilian period buttons in there camps.

[ivan salis]

buttons were buttons --- folks cut buttons off old shabby clothes and reused them on new "home made" clothes that they made or saved the buttons to repair clothes that "lost" a button--- its quite a common practice even today --- the camp site could have been used earlier (1825 -1830) before the war --what maked the camp site a good one in 1830 most likely would still make it good one in the 1860's --- yankee troops moving thru the area snooping around before or after the rebels camped there --a yankee prisoner could have been held at the rebel camp --- there are just some of the many ways that a 1830 ERA YANKEE FIRE CHIEF button could have gotten into a civil war era rebel camp . --- Ivan