RARE – Remnants of a Union soldier’s blue jacket with buttons recovered from the Savage’s Station, VA Battlefield

This is a rare find being offered, it is a section of a Union soldier’s blue coat with two buttons. The overall approximate size is 5” x 4” and it has Union General Service Eagle buttons. I have not removed the buttons but just left them as I received them. One appears to be complete with a shank and the other just the face. It was recovered in a trench with other pieces of cloth and buttons at the Savage’s Station Battlefield in Virginia.

The Battle of Savage's Station took place on June 29, 1862, in Henrico County, as the fourth of the Seven Days Battles (Peninsula Campaign). The main body of the Union Army of the Potomac began a general withdrawal toward the James River. Confederate Brig. Gen. John B. Magruder pursued them along the railroad and the Williamsburg Road.

Magruder struck Maj. Gen. Edwin Vose Sumner's II Corps (the Union rearguard) with three brigades near Savage's Station, while Maj. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's divisions were stalled north of the Chickahominy River. Union forces continued to withdraw across White Oak Swamp, abandoning supplies and more than 2,500 wounded soldiers in a field hospital.

Along with so many wounded left behind, there was no time to even bury the dead. They were left where they fell, and there is a very good chance that they wore these blue jackets. When the war ended the government tried to retrieve as many of the Union dead as possible for burial. During the recovery it was just the remains that were removed and probably any valuables or identification - clothes, accoutrements, etc. were just discarded.

It is rare and unusual to find any cloth items from Civil War sites. Cloth and leather had a very low survival rate. This unique artifact comes in the glass top display case shown.