Ball button. Is it civil war?

[Ammoman]

Hi everyone, my son found this Button in a field today here in North Carolina.. Can anyone tell me what era it may be from? We can’t quite make out the letters but we still see some stars.





Thank you for your input in advance and happy hunting!

 

[The Dirt Fisherman]

from The same section of field there was a block I button, an N.C. State seal button, a few flat buttons, a trime, an ihp, and some other random civil war period stuff as well as 1812 and rev stuff.

 

[WVExplorer]

One of the nicer ball buttons I’ve seen posted. Most on here don’t even have writing on them. Looks like most were used for Military purpose between 1800-1830s so it could easily be pre-civil war. Some were worn by civilian too. If you can figure out the writing on the backmark it may help. Looks like “Bast”, “Rast” or “Mast”? Here’s a link to a treasurenet posting that gives some info:

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/what/243651-ball-button.html

 

[Ammoman]

Thanks for the info on the button.

 

[smokeythecat]

Yes, I'd say it's a CW period Zouave button. Some were also used on non military clothing.