Southern Colorado finds!!

[diggingthe1]

Got down to Southern Colorado to some great permissions. Sure is a lot of history left down there!! Any info on the rectangle piece with the initials? My friend said it was off a gun. I found 2 Ohio buttons and am wondering who are the people that wore the state buttons? Rattlesnakes are out!! It's better to hunt without headphones Happy Hunting!!!

 

[diggingthe1]

The G.A.R. served a very important role in the social functioning of the old towns. Those Ohio state seal buttons post date the Civil War, but would still signal when worn that the wearer was a Union veteran. I find a fair number of general service Civil War era buttons from the local ghost towns which were settled in the 1870s, suggesting that the wearing of old uniforms was a common occurrence, at least for parades, etc. I have never found a single piece of marked Confederate insignia among all of the eagle buttons, even though there were significant numbers of confederate veterans present in the mining districts. In fact, Colorado had entire mining towns which went politically for the CSA at the onset of the Civil War.

Your buttons there could also just be off of an old jacket which got thrown out, but hopefully my personal anecdotes here provide some more fuel for thought regarding finds of old militaria in mining camps.

Thank you for the input on the buttons. Very very interesting. I did find the buttons 1/2 mile apart. Makes sense. I appreciate the post!!