✅ SOLVED Button ID confirmation

[Ism]

I dug this button yesterday and ID'd it on the web as a Union riflemans eagle button. Its gold gilt but has no mfg identification on the back like the one I was able to compare with on the net.
In addition I didn't find a size associated with it at the site. The area I am searching dates to this era but I am thinking the button may be from a later date. Can anybody help me narrow down what I have?
The exact size is .610 inch in diameter. Dime is for reference.

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Diving for Pleasure and Treasure - Grab it through Amazon!

[duggap]

I think you have tied it down pretty good. Without a backmark it is hard to guess the exact date. During the civilwar they pretty much didn't make them with an R (or at least I have been told), therefore I would guess it to be in the 1850s. A very nice find by the way.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

The button-book by Alphaeus H. Albert says the US army's Regiment Of Riflemen was disbanded after the end of the Mexican War (1848). But there is debate about whether the Riflemen regiment participated in the civil war, because of the significant number of eagle-R buttons which have been dug at civil war battlesites and campsites.

I think we diggers & collectors can be pretty sure Regiment of Riflemen units were reactivated after 1848, because some of the eagle-R buttons listed in the Albert book have "strictly" 1849-and-later backmarks.

You wrote:
> Can anybody help me narrow down what I have?

Eagle-R buttons came in three sizes:
cuff = 15-to-16mm
coat = 19-to-21mm
overcoat = 23mm
So, your .61-inch button is the cuff size.

Your button's eagle has "puffy" legs, which is a characteristic of eagle buttons manufactured by Scovill and by Steele & Johnson. (Both of those button-making companies were located in Waterbury CT.) Although your button has no backmark, I believe it was made by Steele & Johnson, because that company is known to have produced eagle buttons which had a loose "floating" (not soldered tight) loop with simply two circular lines as a backmark.

 

[Ism]

Thanks Duggap and TCG for your wealth of information!

I have never dug an authentic eagle button before. This makes me very happy with the location I am hunting.
This must be from a veteran because it was dug in SE Michigan at a one time homestead that is now a plowed field.