Block I Button Help

[EdistoDigger]

Can someone give me some info on this button that I found yesterday. I was thinking Union based on the location but now I'm not too sure. It's sitting on a quarter for size. Can someone recommend a good Civil War button book also?

EdistoDigger

Thanks Kid !!

 

[Kenosha Kid]

First, it's a Confederate Infantry button. If a button has a maker's mark (on the back side) it would better help to date it and/or identify the type of button.

1 ~ Record of American Uniform and Historical Buttons (Bicentennial Edition) by Alphaeus H. Albert’s -or-

2 ~ Uniform Buttons of the United States 1776-1865 by Warren K. Tice.

Others may have their own personal preference(s) as to what book(s) they have.

Though these are reproductions, you can click on the "downloadable flyer" to give you a 'general' idea of what button was worn by what side :

http://thebuttonbaron.com/details.html

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

First... congratulations!

You've dug your first "Cast I" button ...so called because the whole thing is one solid piece of cast high-copper-content brass. (That metal's color is "orange-ish" rather than the yellow of typical brass. Strictly Confederate-made, and a product of the Deep South. Many were apparently manufactured at the Atlanta Arsenal. They start showing up in the second half of 1863, and were issued almost exclusively to the Army of Tennessee and other Deep South CS troops. Few are found in Virginia ...and those few got there on the uniforms of Longstreet's Corps, who received the Cast I buttons while on detached service with the Army of Tennessee in late 1863.