Brandyg, the hat-badge's finder, wrote:
> Just having a hard time pin pointing the time period.
AARC's identification of your find is correct. The US Army first adopted the "Great Seal of the United States" for use on its uniform buttons and hat-badges in 1902... it is still being used on buttons and headgear today. That being said, the US Army was at its largest size during World and One and WW2, so your Great Seal hat-badge is statistically most likely from either the WW1 or WW2 era. Could be from later, but the odds favor it having been made when the army had by far the largest number of men in it, in all its history.
If you are now wondering how it came to be lost on a Mississippi River levee... during those wars, the US Army did massive troop-training exercises in "undeveloped" rural areas. You probably wouldn't believe the odd locations we civil war relic-diggers find WW1 and WW2 US Army insignia (and other equipment) here in Central Virginia... especially, along the banks of the James River -- which kinda corresponds to your hat-badge's Mississippi River levee location.