Artillery insignia is the scarcest Civil War major branch of service insignia simply because of the numbers involved compared to infantry and even cavalry commands. This is a nice set of artillery straps for a lieutenant colonel. The fields are a deep red, with no moth damage. The bullion borders show a subdued gold with alternating dead and bright strands. The inner and outer jacqueron edge wires are present.

Civil War shoulder straps were often supplied by the military goods dealer to the officer uncut, on one piece of fabric, to be cut apart and the edges turned under and sewn, and the straps themselves then sewn to the shoulders of the coat. The backs were usually left open, exposing at the center the underlying webbing on which the embroidery was done and the fabric often shows fraying or moth damage. In this case the base fabric has been trimmed to the edges of the straps, but they show relatively neatly and preserve good color to the bullion and the red.

Batteries of U.S. field artillery were commanded by lieutenants and captains. Field grade officers tended to be found in the heavy artillery regiments, which were called into the field as infantry in 1864, but occasionally also in artillery on the corps or army level, but field grade artillery shoulder straps have always been scarce.  [sr]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

THIS ITEM, AS WITH ALL OTHER ITEMS AVAILABLE ON OUR WEB SITE,

MAY BE PURCHASED THROUGH OUR LAYAWAY PROGRAM.

FOR OUR POLICIES AND TERMS,

CLICK ON ‘CONTACT US’ AT THE TOP OF ANY PAGE ON THE SITE,

THEN ON ‘LAYAWAY POLICY’.

THANK YOU!