SCARCE WASHINGTON BUST CIVIL WAR SOLDIER’S IDENTIFICATION DISK: JOHN SHELDON, 12th RHODE ISLAND

SCARCE WASHINGTON BUST CIVIL WAR SOLDIER’S IDENTIFICATION DISK: JOHN SHELDON, 12th RHODE ISLAND

Hover to zoom

Image 1 Image 2

$1,250.00

Quantity Available: 1

Item Code: 490-7587

Shipping: Determined by Method & Location of buyer

To Order:
Call 717-334-0347,
Fax 717-334-5016, or E-mail

Civil War identification tags or badges were not items of issue, but privately purchased and came in a wide variety of styles- shields, corps badges, disks with various motifs, including several like this with a portrait bust of the nation’s founding father in relief on the obverse. This shows the bust facing to the viewer’s right, surrounded by 34 6-pointed stars, and with the word “UNION,” all in relief, and pierced with small hole for suspension by pinback top bar- often an eagle or portrait bust of a military figure- to be worn on the coat. The reverse was laid out with a raised blank arc at top for the soldier’s name, with separate bars below that marked in raised letters, “CO _ / _ REG _ / VOLUNTEERS / ENTERD SERVICE/ _ / 186_” all with blank spaces before or after that would be filled by the particular merchant with stamped letters or numbers. In this case it was completed by the vendor to read “JOHN SHELDON / CO G/ 12  REG RI / VOLUNTEERS / ENTERD SERVICE OCT. 3. / 1862.”

The badge is in very good condition, with a ring still in place at top that would have secured it to a pinback top bar. The raised details of the stars, portrait bust, and lettering are all sharp and there are traces of a gilt finish in recesses like the area between the raised edge and the stars on the bust side and is somewhat more pronounced overall on the personalized side, though there is age and tone darkening on both. This is the “Washington 3C” in the classification of Maier and Stahl, who rate it as “scarce,” though the regiment’s sutler or a visiting peddler must have done some business in these since they list three of this pattern known from the 12th RI, though one, listed from Company G, may be this one. The other two belonged to men in Companies D and I.

The 12th Rhode Island was nine-month unit organized at Providence in October 1862. They were posted in Washington until December and then, after a wintry march and just before Fredericksburg, joined the 9th Corps, Army of the Potomac, serving with it to April 1863 when it was assigned to the Department of Ohio moved west to Kentucky with Burnside, and lastly assigned to the 23rd Corps to July 1863. Dyer summarizes their service as follows: Camped at Arlington Heights and at Fairfax Seminary, Va., Defenses of Washington, D. C., until December 1, 1862. Marched to Falmouth, Va., December 1–8. Battle of Fredericksburg, Va., December 12–15. Burnside's second Campaign, "Mud March," January 20–24, 1863. Moved to Newport News, Va., February 9, thence to Lexington, Ky., March 25–31. On duty at Lexington, Winchester, Boonsboro, Richmond, Paint Lick and Lancaster, Ky., until April 23. Moved to Crab Orchard April 23, and duty there until June 3. Marched from Nicholasville to Somerset June 3–9. On duty at Stigall's Ferry, Jamestown and guarded fords of the Cumberland River until July 5. Moved to Somerset July 5, thence to Crab Orchard, and started home July 11. On duty at Cincinnati, Ohio, July 15–19. Moved to Providence July 19–22. Finally mustered out July 29, 1863.

Sheldon was credited to the town of Coventry, R.I., when he enlisted. We find him in Coventry in the 1850 census as a farmer, age 26, living with his wife, age 30, and listing his birthplace as Rhode Island. In the 1860 census the couple appear in Warwick, where he is listed as a laborer (and gives his age as 33) and the couple have two young daughters- 4 years old and 7 months old. His enlistment was formally dated in the records to October 1, though he may have had a couple of days to report for duty, accounting for the Oct. 3 date on the disk. In any case, he was not officially mustered in until October 13, with the rest of the regiment, becoming a private in Company G. We do not have his full service file, but published rosters indicate he was present through early February 1863, which puts him in the ranks for the regiment’s first, bloody, experience of battle- the debacle at Fredericksburg, where they lost 109 in killed and wounded, along with 95 missing, according to their history in the RI Adjutant General’s records.

Sheldon is listed as falling ill and being hospitalized on Feb. 8, 1863. This was just after Burnside’s famous “Mud March,” a botched effort to get around Lee’s left, and just before the move of the regiment to Newport News on Feb. 9, before heading to Kentucky in March. Sheldon never returned to the regiment or to his wife and family, dying in hospital at Philadelphia on Feb. 25. Whether he had moved back to Coventry before enlisting or signed up there for a tempting bounty, he was interred there in the Maple Root Cemetery.

This is a scarce pattern and worn by a soldier with short, but active service, who gave his life for his country and the Union.  [CM][ph:L]

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

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

MAY BE PURCHASED THROUGH OUR LAYAWAY PROGRAM.

CLICK HERE FOR OUR POLICIES AND TERMS.

THANK YOU!

Inquire »

Inquire About SCARCE WASHINGTON BUST CIVIL WAR SOLDIER’S IDENTIFICATION DISK: JOHN SHELDON, 12th RHODE ISLAND

should be empty