A beautiful example of the U.S. Army regimental marksmanship award of 1858 made by Simons of Philadelphia and issued through the US Army Ordnance Department.

The US army only really began to consider a policy on marksmanship when the 1855 series of arms was about to place rifled arms firing the Minie ball in the hands of all soldiers. (Ulysses Grant once remarked that at a few hundred yards someone with a smooth-bore musket could fire at you all day long without you finding out about it.) The first army-wide treatise on marksmanship was published in 1858 by Captain Henry Heth, later Confederate general, under the title, “A System of Target Practice for the Use of Troops When Armed with the Musket, Rifle-Musket, Rifle, or Carbine.” Heth proposed target shooting at ranges from 150 to 1,000 yards, and annual prizes from the Ordnance Department for the best shots at the army, regimental and company level.

The army-wide medal did not gain much traction, but regimental and company awards did. They were requisitioned by regimental commanders from the Ordnance Department, retained as regimental property, and awarded to the best company and regimental shots each year. The award consisted of a marksman’s stadia that would be worn on the soldier’s chest, suspended by a chain fastened though a buttonhole and also hooked through a loop on the soldier’s chest, so that it would hang like a medal. The company-award stadia were brass and the regimental-awards, like this one, were silver.

The stadia is functional as well. Intended to let the marksman better estimate distances to his targets, it was held at a fixed distance from the eye. The flat silver body has a moving slide that would be adjusted to the height of a visible figure either on foot or mounted and the distance read from a graduated scale along the left edge. One side was calculated for men on foot, and the other for men mounted, designated on each side at right “infantry” or “cavalry,” and the theoretical height of each, 70.86 and 98.43 inches respectively, is stamped next to the engraved designations. The ranges are given along the left edge on each side, in 50 and then 100-yard increments.

The stadia is on one side at the top “U.S. / Stadia,” and at the bottom, “Frankford Arsenal,” but was jeweler made for the army by George Simons of Philadelphia, and is stamped on one edge, “Geo. W. Simons & Bro. / Manufre. Philada.” (a firm designation dating only from 1854 to 1865.) Simons has decorated the top and bottom of the stadia body and both sides of the slide with beautiful floral scrolls as is fitting for an award or medal. The slide is constructed of two pieces, joined at the very edges with small screws still showing some blue.

The silver is in excellent condition, unpolished and with some pleasing age tarnish. When issued, these would be fitted with a chain and toggle, like a watch chain, for hooking into the buttonhole and a cord with a small ball on the end that ran out from the slide. The ball would be held by the soldier in his mouth and the cord stetched to keep the stadia at the proper distance from his face. This lacks a cord and chain, but comes with its original leather carrying case, constructed like a wallet, and bearing on the inside of the flap its original instructional label reading, “Stadia to be held 24 inches from the eye.” Whether this indicates the stadia would be fitted with a cord of proper length after delivery or is just a warning to keep the cord taut is unclear.

This is a very rare, pre-Civil War U.S. army award. The onset of the war and dramatic increase in the army made it impractical to continue the tradition widely, though Emerson indicates some may have been awarded as late as 1863. This is an elegant piece of silver work with a very practical use, reflecting contemporary military developments and policy. It is also a very attractive and interesting memento of the last years of the “Old Army.”  [sr]

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