✅ SOLVED Possible Pre-CW Artillery Cuff button I.D.

[Nooberz]

I got this Artillery cuff button today at an old field site. I've gotten plenty of civil war buttons before but this one has me stumped. The Eagle seems to be smaller than the rest of my cuff buttons. Also, this one has much skinnier wings, much like a butterfly . I put a comparison with one of my CW cuff buttons. Backmark is Horstmann. Thanks for the help.

An update on the backmark. It is HORSTMANN, and underneath the shank that is now broken it is H.M. with an I at the end.

 

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[TheCannonballGuy]

The backmark most likely says "WH Horstmann Phi" ...I think you may be reading the WH upside-down as HM. Based on that backmark, your US army Artillery Officer cuff button is from 1840 to 1845. In the latter year, the name was changed to W.H. Horstmann & Sons. Info-source is the book "American Military Button Makers And Dealers; Their Backmarks & Dates" by William F. McGuinn and Bruce S. Bazelon.

 

[Nooberz]

Thanks for the I.D. I spent a long time looking for a match online and had no luck.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Reasons why you couldn't find a match:
1- During "peacetime" in the 1800s, the size of the US army was downright tiny, numbering well-below 50,000 men. It jumpred to several million during 1861-65, and afterward very quickly shrank back down to its small pre-war size. So, not many Military buttons needed to be manufactured at the time yours was made (early-1840s). That's why your button a seldom-seen variation.
2- None of the books on 1776-1865 US Military buttons bother to show the cuff-size versions, unless the button only comes in cuff-size.