RARE CIVIL WAR US ARMY SIGNAL CORPS CAP INSIGNIA

RARE CIVIL WAR US ARMY SIGNAL CORPS CAP INSIGNIA

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$5,500.00

Quantity Available: 1

Item Code: 490-7372

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Civil War insignia for the signal corps is among the rarest of the rare. Initially titled the signal service as part of the army staff, it was established only in 1860 with the appointment of just one officer and expanded into the signal corps by an act of Congress in March 1863. 1864 regulations for officers’ cap insignia called for crossed signal flags and a torch over a small silver Old English US, and simple crossed flags on the arms for enlisted men, but this type of embroidered bullion hat insignia with no torch, and including silver stars in the upper angle of the crossed flags and a U.S. in the angle below, is known from photographs and, a very few, extant examples. The small size and elite nature of the organization likely accounts for their insignia’s appearance on the hats of some enlisted men and in one or two cases, at least, on an enlisted man’s jacket sleeve. We show a close-up of this insignia on an enlisted man’s hat in a CDV image we once owned.

This measures about 1-3/4” tall and 2-1/4” wide, with the insignia embroidered on black velvet, with a brown polished cotton back and a jaceron wire border. The Old English “U.S.” in the lower angle of the crossed flags is embroidered in coiled silver wire, and the thirteen small stars in the upper angle are silver as well. The staffs of the crossed flags are rendered in gold, with the flag to the right showing a wide gold bullion border around a red field with short strands of silver bullion in the center, and the flag at left with a wide silver embroidered border, also around a red field that appears to have had similarly short bullion strands in the center, perhaps in gold, but now missing, with the contrasting colors pointing to the specified use of red flags with white centers and white flags with red centers in the 1864 regulations.

The condition overall is excellent, with just the small bullion strands in the middle of the red field of the flag at left missing. The colors are bright. There is no moth damage.

The signal corps was reduced after the Civil War and this insignia, along with that incorporating a torch, was replaced in 1872 by the conventional staff wreath and U.S. See Jim Frasca’s North-South Trader article on hat insignia and Emerson’s Encyclopedia of US Army Insignia and Uniforms for discussions and parallel examples, particularly Emerson’s Figure 23-8. This is an extremely rare piece of Civil War embroidered bullion insignia in great condition and for a branch of service that was small, but tremendously important.  [sr][ph:L]

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