I purchased this Civil War-era hat badge several years ago and wanted to show it for opinions. The seller didn't make any representations about it other than it being a period piece. He believes it to be a VMI faculty member's hat badge but said he had never seen another like it. A picker reportedly found it in Pennsylvania along with a couple of Virginia buttons and a US hat badge but unfortunately without any type of provenance.
I showed photos to the director of the VMI Museum but he hasn't seen one like it either. He did say, however, that they have almost no information on faculty uniforms from this period so that doesn't mean this one isn't correct. Remember that in 1861 VMI had only existed for 22 years and had only a small number of faculty. The only surviving pre-War faculty uniform I'm aware of belonged to Major T.J. Jackson. It was originally a field grade officer's uniform as evidenced by the button arrangement, but he added brigadier general shoulder straps when he was promoted to that rank. (Interestingly, he is reported to have worn his old VMI uniform through the Valley Campaign of 1862.) General Jackson wore a plain blue forage cap with his blue uniform, at least after the War began; it's possible that as a VMI professor he had more formal headgear that hasn't survived.
In my own limited research I've been unable to find a photo of a faculty member from this period wearing a hat. It definitely isn't a cadet insignia as cadet uniforms are reasonably well documented.
The badge measures about 2 7/8" x 1 1/2". The embroidery appears to be high quality, better than most of the current reproductions. One interesting detail is that the wreath is a design - mixed laurel and palm - unique to the Engineer Corps. This is in keeping with VMI's origin as a school of engineering. The badge is stuffed with cotton batting and nothing glows under black light. I'd like to confirm that this is indeed a period piece, and of course if anyone has any additional information on its specific use I'd be very interested to hear that as well.
I showed photos to the director of the VMI Museum but he hasn't seen one like it either. He did say, however, that they have almost no information on faculty uniforms from this period so that doesn't mean this one isn't correct. Remember that in 1861 VMI had only existed for 22 years and had only a small number of faculty. The only surviving pre-War faculty uniform I'm aware of belonged to Major T.J. Jackson. It was originally a field grade officer's uniform as evidenced by the button arrangement, but he added brigadier general shoulder straps when he was promoted to that rank. (Interestingly, he is reported to have worn his old VMI uniform through the Valley Campaign of 1862.) General Jackson wore a plain blue forage cap with his blue uniform, at least after the War began; it's possible that as a VMI professor he had more formal headgear that hasn't survived.
In my own limited research I've been unable to find a photo of a faculty member from this period wearing a hat. It definitely isn't a cadet insignia as cadet uniforms are reasonably well documented.
The badge measures about 2 7/8" x 1 1/2". The embroidery appears to be high quality, better than most of the current reproductions. One interesting detail is that the wreath is a design - mixed laurel and palm - unique to the Engineer Corps. This is in keeping with VMI's origin as a school of engineering. The badge is stuffed with cotton batting and nothing glows under black light. I'd like to confirm that this is indeed a period piece, and of course if anyone has any additional information on its specific use I'd be very interested to hear that as well.
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