Hi,
I'm new to the forum and have enjoyed the past couple hours searching around. My main focus has been to find previous threads of staff badges but so far I've not been successful in locating any. A few years ago I acquired this badge and a belt buckle belonging to Brigadier General George D. Ruggles.
As many of you probably know George D. Ruggles was an 1855 Westpoint graduate and served as Chief of Staff of General Pope, Assistant-Adjutant General of the Army of the Potomac, and soon after was made Adjutant of the Army of the Potomac.
This badge appears to be silver with a solid gold eagle over a purple glass on the obverse and an engraving on the reverse that says "Gen'l Geo. D. Ruggles, Adj. Genl. Army of the Potomac". It has a hallmark for the Bailey, Banks, and Biddle company.
My thought for several years had been that this was some type of reunion or society type badge. I posted a thread elsewhere and had received no responses for a year, still curious I brought that thread back up and someone posted an intriguing scan of a page from a book. After that I had no other responses but many more questions.
A friend recently pointed me to this great site which I hadn't known existed! Now I'm hopeful some of you are knowledgeable on staff badges since you seem to be so full of information on a wide variety of Civil War history. As you can see the badge in the book for GO #5 appears to be a rough facsimile of the badge belonging to Ruggles. The purple glass appears to be "solferino", or purple, in color. My question is this a badge from the original 1863 GO #5 which does not provide a description beyond the "a golden eagle in a silver wreath as the emblem, the later having been in use as a badge for headquarters-aides, Army of the Potomac.", or is this a post May 1864 badge because of the solferino backing? Do any of you have photos showing early badges or later badges?
Here is a photo of General Ruggles in 1890 wearing this badge. As you can see it had a different ribbon at the time. The badge he is wearing looks exactly similar to the one I currently have besides the ribbon. Could it be that he had 2 ribbons for the same badge? Was the purple or "solferino" ribbon made for the post May 1864 order? I'm hoping someone might have better photos showing these badges prior to May 1864 to be sure.
.
Looking at period photos online it appears that each General's staff had different badges. Some appear only to wear a type of ribbon and no medal. I did find one of General Meade's staff "taken possibly on occasion of Regular Army promotions, August 1864."
Notice the man on the right, Simon Forrester Barstow. He was Assistant Adjutant General under Meade. Notice the medal he is wearing also looks to be surrounded by a wreath with a ribbon underneath. The drape is definitely different than the one I have with Barstow's having a different ribbon coloring and a bar on either end of the ribbon. In the same image you will see three other men wearing either smaller medals or some types of ribbons.
Here is a different type of badge being worn by Percy Wyndham. Notice he looks to have two different ribbons as well as the badge. Do any of you know what each was for? Wyndham served in Washington DC while recuperating from a gunshot wound before being mustered out July 5, 1864. So I'm assuming the badges/ribbons he's wearing are earlier than that date. I'm unsure if he was on a GO's staff but have not found any evidence of it so far.
Here is one more. General Sherman's staff appear to be wearing a badge that also appears in a staff members book. Here is the book title.
As you can see it appears that General Sherman is wearing this badge.
Here is a photo of 9 of the staff members appearing to wear similar badges. This badge appears to be Headquarters Military Division of the Mississippi. It has the XII Corps, XIV Corps, XV Corps, XVII Corps, and XXIII Corps badges all combined into one. I'm curious how many of these particular headquarters badges may have existed?
Do any of you know of any other photos showing similar staff badges? Or perhaps do any of you own some of these badges or know if they're in museums etc? It'd be quite difficult to collect these due to the small numbers created but might be a worthwhile endeavor! As of now I'm just hopeful that some of you might have studied these staff badges and know a bit more about them. Looking forward to many more discussions with all of you.
Regards,
Mike
I'm new to the forum and have enjoyed the past couple hours searching around. My main focus has been to find previous threads of staff badges but so far I've not been successful in locating any. A few years ago I acquired this badge and a belt buckle belonging to Brigadier General George D. Ruggles.
As many of you probably know George D. Ruggles was an 1855 Westpoint graduate and served as Chief of Staff of General Pope, Assistant-Adjutant General of the Army of the Potomac, and soon after was made Adjutant of the Army of the Potomac.
This badge appears to be silver with a solid gold eagle over a purple glass on the obverse and an engraving on the reverse that says "Gen'l Geo. D. Ruggles, Adj. Genl. Army of the Potomac". It has a hallmark for the Bailey, Banks, and Biddle company.
My thought for several years had been that this was some type of reunion or society type badge. I posted a thread elsewhere and had received no responses for a year, still curious I brought that thread back up and someone posted an intriguing scan of a page from a book. After that I had no other responses but many more questions.
A friend recently pointed me to this great site which I hadn't known existed! Now I'm hopeful some of you are knowledgeable on staff badges since you seem to be so full of information on a wide variety of Civil War history. As you can see the badge in the book for GO #5 appears to be a rough facsimile of the badge belonging to Ruggles. The purple glass appears to be "solferino", or purple, in color. My question is this a badge from the original 1863 GO #5 which does not provide a description beyond the "a golden eagle in a silver wreath as the emblem, the later having been in use as a badge for headquarters-aides, Army of the Potomac.", or is this a post May 1864 badge because of the solferino backing? Do any of you have photos showing early badges or later badges?
Here is a photo of General Ruggles in 1890 wearing this badge. As you can see it had a different ribbon at the time. The badge he is wearing looks exactly similar to the one I currently have besides the ribbon. Could it be that he had 2 ribbons for the same badge? Was the purple or "solferino" ribbon made for the post May 1864 order? I'm hoping someone might have better photos showing these badges prior to May 1864 to be sure.
.
Looking at period photos online it appears that each General's staff had different badges. Some appear only to wear a type of ribbon and no medal. I did find one of General Meade's staff "taken possibly on occasion of Regular Army promotions, August 1864."
Notice the man on the right, Simon Forrester Barstow. He was Assistant Adjutant General under Meade. Notice the medal he is wearing also looks to be surrounded by a wreath with a ribbon underneath. The drape is definitely different than the one I have with Barstow's having a different ribbon coloring and a bar on either end of the ribbon. In the same image you will see three other men wearing either smaller medals or some types of ribbons.
Here is a different type of badge being worn by Percy Wyndham. Notice he looks to have two different ribbons as well as the badge. Do any of you know what each was for? Wyndham served in Washington DC while recuperating from a gunshot wound before being mustered out July 5, 1864. So I'm assuming the badges/ribbons he's wearing are earlier than that date. I'm unsure if he was on a GO's staff but have not found any evidence of it so far.
Here is one more. General Sherman's staff appear to be wearing a badge that also appears in a staff members book. Here is the book title.
As you can see it appears that General Sherman is wearing this badge.
Here is a photo of 9 of the staff members appearing to wear similar badges. This badge appears to be Headquarters Military Division of the Mississippi. It has the XII Corps, XIV Corps, XV Corps, XVII Corps, and XXIII Corps badges all combined into one. I'm curious how many of these particular headquarters badges may have existed?
Do any of you know of any other photos showing similar staff badges? Or perhaps do any of you own some of these badges or know if they're in museums etc? It'd be quite difficult to collect these due to the small numbers created but might be a worthwhile endeavor! As of now I'm just hopeful that some of you might have studied these staff badges and know a bit more about them. Looking forward to many more discussions with all of you.
Regards,
Mike
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