✅ SOLVED What button is this? Eagle with I on chest shield

[nathan104]

This is not mine! Someone posted it on a facebook detecting group. I looked through google but none of the ones I see seem to match this one. This one has a sharper beak that isn't real curled down and it doesn't have a border.

 

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[Mud Hut]

It's an Eagle I infantry button

 

[nathan104]

I know its a military infantry button, but the shape of the eagle doesn't match up to the ones Im seeing. The wings are shaped different than the image I get searching Eagle I infantry button. Is it common that they have different shapes to the eagle?

 

[duggap]

Show us the back if you can. To me it looks one piece?

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

That brass TWO-PIECE button is a US Army Infantry Officer button, manufactured from the 1830s through 1874 (when the shield was changed from a "recessed" shield to a "raised" shield. I should mention, there was a version of it in the 1820s, but that was a brass ONE-PIECE button.

Yes, it is common that they have slightly-different shapes of the eagle, because they were made by several different button-manufacturers (such as the Waterbury Button Co, Scovill Manufacturing Co, Steele & Johnson, and D.Evans & Co). To view a wide selection of the 1840s-through-1860s variations, go here:
Ridgeway Civil War Archive Buttons from Federal Infantry 2 piece buttons, page one

 

[nathan104]

Awesome, thanks for that info! Im not familiar at all with civil war items and didn't realize the designs had variation to them, but it does make sense considering the different makers back then instead of a exact design like today. Id love to find something like this one day, but not much chance in my local area, but its always possible. Thanks so much for the information, I love learning about these things.

 

[nsdq]

No worries you will find one when you least except it happy hunting