NHDVS Button

[The West Village]

Hi, I was hoping that someone would be able to help definitively provide more information on this button I found the other day. It's in pretty good condition with full shank, about the diameter of a quarter, with the letters NHDVS on the front. The back says 'Steele & Johnson, Waterbury CT'. I think that NHDVS stands for National Home for Disabled Veteran Soldiers. If so, I'm guessing that this dates to the post-CW era. Interestingly I found this in a field within shouting distance of a VA med center, although not on VA grounds. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks for looking

 

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[vpnavy]

Nice find The West Village. You might find this interesting...

The Letters on your Button- NHDVS -stands for: National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers. It was created in March 1865 to care for the sick and injured volunteer Civil War Soldiers and continued to care for them into the 1900s until they began to die from old age but then they also were authorized by Congress to care for the Volunteer soldiers during WWI. The NHDVS was finally absorbed with a couple other organizations into the Veterans Administration in 1930.. We find them often here in Virginia due to the large convalescent Civil War soldier population we had here.

 

[CRUSADER]

Nice looking button, first I've seen posted here, so I'm guessing it's pretty scarce!

 

[HutSiteDigger]

I have seen this button before @ a Civil War shop in Stafford.. I will ask the owner of the shop tomorrow for more info!

 

[jamesbibb]

They are frequently dug post CW buttons.

 

[cwhunter_1]

1858 - 1875. Nice.

 

[HighFlyer]

1858 - 1875. Nice.

I just found this exact same button myself. I don't think these dates are correct. Lincoln signed into law the creation of the National Asylum for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers in 1865. The "Asylum" was changed to "Home" in 1873. So I would say this button would be 1873 at the earliest and around 1930 at the latest (the VA was created in 1930). Very cool find. Your button is in much better shape than mine. Mine has been squished flat and one of the letters on the front is very hard to make out. Mine has the same marks on the back.

National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia