Rare Original Civil War Cavalry Officer's "C" button, dug at Sailor's Creek, VA

This is a beautiful excavated original Civil War button being offered, it is a rare coat-size Officer’s “C” button, the “C” to designate Cavalry, measuring 22mm. It still has the original shank remaining and the backmark: "SCOVILL MF'G CO. / WATERBURY”, circa 1860 to 1865 manufacture. An interesting note is a close-up of the shank shows some of the original thread from the uniform. It was recovered in the 1980s at the Sailor’s Creek, Virginia Battlefield.

This battle took place when General Robert E. Lee's army was retreating from Richmond to Petersburg. Here, on April 6, 1865, Union General Philip Sheridan cut off and beat back about a quarter of Lee's army. Eight Confederate generals surrendered, and 7,700 men were lost. This was the last major engagement of the war in Virginia; Lee's surrender at Appomattox occurred three days later.

Often people consider these buttons as only used by the Union, but if you ever go through the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond Virginia, you will see that many of the Confederate coats also had these buttons on them because that’s all they had when the war broke out.

For a dug button, this one is very nice, even having some of the original gold gilt on the face. There is a tiny push on the side but doesn’t affect anything. This would make a great addition to any Civil War collection.