Help with Flower Buttons

[Solomon]

I've been growing more and more interested in collecting flower buttons, as they offer great variety of style, are often very attractive pieces, and seem to be a way of collecting (often) confederate relics at reasonable prices. But as with so many things, the potential runs high for counterfeiting, mis-identification, and dishonesty, especially due to the variation and lack of uniformity, and I want to educate myself beyond a basic understanding of what they are. Does anyone know of a good source of information - internet, book, or otherwise - and does anyone know if Alberts or McGuinn/Bazelon cover them much, before I purchase any books?

Many, many thanks in advance!!

 

[major bill]

Great question and I hope some one with this books answer you. Sadly I do not have these books. How about posting an image of a flower button so those of us not in the "flower button loop" have a better understand of them?

 

[Solomon]

Yeah, absolutely. Here are a few pictures pulled from the internet. Basically, flower buttons were non-military buttons used by both sides - some by the North, earlier in the war, before the war machine was at full tilt, and by the South throughout, as they simply didn't have the resources to outfit their troops appropriately. Southern women would often donate their buttons to rebel soldiers for uniforms, and I've read that for every one military button dug at confederate camps, ten flower buttons will be found. In a nutshell.

 

[mofederal]

I guess I have never encountered these before, as I am not a button man. I have never collected buttons, but I will look at them now.

 

[Package4]

I've been growing more and more interested in collecting flower buttons, as they offer great variety of style, are often very attractive pieces, and seem to be a way of collecting (often) confederate relics at reasonable prices. But as with so many things, the potential runs high for counterfeiting, mis-identification, and dishonesty, especially due to the variation and lack of uniformity, and I want to educate myself beyond a basic understanding of what they are. Does anyone know of a good source of information - internet, book, or otherwise - and does anyone know if Alberts or McGuinn/Bazelon cover them much, before I purchase any books?

Many, many thanks in advance!!

Buttons are and were utilitarian in scope many early pieces have glass and flower buttons, but became more uniform as the war progressed. Studying the Fort Mahone photos you will see that souvenir hunters had taken just about every button in sight, leaving only US and bone buttons.

 

[donna]

Beautiful buttons. I collect buttons. I will have to check thru ones I have.

 

[major bill]

Thank you for adding to our knowledge. I also am not a button person and did not know how common flower buttons were.

 

[UCVRelics]

Flower buttons are very common in both US & CS camps. I have dug more of them in CS camps especially late war camps. A lot of CS soldiers had cloths, coats etc sent to them from home as the need for clothing got tight in the last year of the war.

 

[Solomon]

FYI, and as another example, I just received my first lot of buttons, purported to have been dug from a Confederate camp near Dumfries, VA.

 

[Mrs. V]

Very cool. Real men wear flower buttons.

 

[Solomon]

A set I received today - FYI, as one more example. Note the still-entwined cuff links at the top-left, pretty cool. The gentleman who sold them to me, by the way, states that many flower buttons were from vests that Southern soldiers wore from home (as many had no, or incomplete, uniforms), and some were probably from officer's wives, who were allowed to stay in the field until 1862.

 

[2ndDEboy]

FYI, and as another example, I just received my first lot of buttons, purported to have been dug from a Confederate camp near Dumfries, VA.

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Mine looks likes your but found at culps hill Gettysburg

 

[Solomon]

Mine looks likes your but found at culps hill Gettysburg

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Nice!! They do look very similar, don't they? Have quite a few flower buttons now. In my humble, one of the funner items to collect from the war, with such variability and nuance, especially for Southern collectors.