Mike Serpa
Lt. Colonel
- Joined
- Jan 24, 2013
"George Armstrong Custer: A Group of Nine of his Military Uniform Buttons, Including One from his West Point Cadet's Uniform. The rare cadet button is Albert SU-6, a style which came into use in 1851. The Topographical Engineers example (Albert TE 4-A) is of a type used until the Corps was merged into the Corps of Engineers in 1863. Custer served briefly with the Topographical Engineers in 1862. Five of the buttons are typical U.S. Cavalry buttons, of the design which came into use in 1855 (Albert CV1 - CV7). Albert does not attempt to date the variants, so these buttons could be from his Civil War or Indian Wars period. The remaining two buttons are harder to connect with the Custer family. One is from the Ordnance Corps and the other is an infantry button (identified by the letter "I"). Both styles were in use from the 1850s through the end of the Indian Wars. While we can find no Custer connection to the Ordnance Corps, Tom Custer did spend most of the Civil War in the infantry, from the time he joined the 21st Ohio Volunteer Infantry in September 1861 until he received a commission in his brother's 6th Michigan Cavalry in 1864. Possibly the infantry button was Tom Custer's."
Bringing the