A good pair of Civil War officer’s shoulder straps with the gold oak leaves of a Major set on a black velvet ground indicating a posting to staff. This is not to say a desk job. Staff officers were in the field and often on the front lines under fire carrying out orders and delivering messages from commanding officers at the regimental, brigade, division and corps level, as well as those assigned to army headquarters, and to support duties like the quartermaster department, etc., and we even see examples of black staff straps worn by members of the Medical Staff as well. This is a rather elegant pair, bullion embroidered, with borders consisting of three rows of bullion: one wide center row bordered by two narrower rows, edged inside and out by gilt jaceron wire, a pattern marketed by Schuyler, Hartley and Graham, to name one military goods dealer, as “Extra Rich, Three Row Shoulder Straps.”

The edges and backs show wear and losses to the underlying dark blue fabric with some loose threads, etc., showing they were actually worn on a uniform, but the faces are very good, with the velvet fully intact and the bullion showing as just slightly muted gold with a little rubbing on the high points toward a muted silver tone, but no major shift to gray. The jaceron wire is intact inside and out on both, with inner wire fully in place and the outer wire showing only one or two slight bends.

These were a high grade set and still show off very nicely. Civil War embroidered insignia is a great combination of history and eye-appeal.  [sr][ph:L]

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