✅ SOLVED Help ID Eagle Button

[Ed-D]

It's in bad shape. I took as high a resolution photo as I could and even then some detail is hard to show in a photo, so I included a photo with some notes on it.

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Agony and Death on a Gold Rush Steamer: The Disastrous Sinking of the Side-Wheeler Yankee Blade - Grab it through Amazon!

[nsdq]

is it a two piece button ? looks like gen service era 1900s ?

 

[Ed-D]

is it a two piece button ? looks like gen service era 1900s ?

It does look like a two piece when I looked closely at the broken edge. I also googled 'general service button' and relicman has a number of Federal General Service buttons that seem to match. Not sure what dates they are though.

 

[duggap]

Your button is a general service button of the type commonly seen in the civil war. That button was used into the 1870s.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Duggap is right. More specifically, it is the 1854-through-1874 version of US Army "general service" button for Enlisted-men's ranks (private, corporal, sergeant).

The vast majority of the 1854-1874 version were manufactured between 1854 and 1865. Because there were so many "leftovers" at the end of the civil war, very few needed to be made until 1875, when the emblem for "general service" buttons was changed to have a highly-raised shield on the eagle's chest. In the photo below, yours is at right, and the 1875-1902 version (having a highly-raised shield) is in the middle.