The New York volunteer’s disc was found near Hagerstown, Md., in 1980. Many dog tags listed the battles the wearer had endured-“Fought In Battles / Bull Run 2nd / Fredericksburg I & 2” are just three of the sharp contests listed on L. Northern dog tags carried patriotic legends: “Liberty,” “Union” or “War of 1861.” Soldiers under General George McClellan’s command carried ID tags with his image on them. Sutlers accompanying the army would set up shop along the soldiers’ tramp, and using a stencil or a die, imprint the soldier’s name, regiment or other personal information on the tags. “Every soldier should have a badge with his name marked distinctly upon it…a solid silver badge…can be fastened to any garment.” Less expensive examples were produced in brass or steel. “Attention Soldiers!” an 1863 Harper’s ad from Drowne & Moore Jewelers of New York blared. Others were commercially manufactured from gold or silver and advertised for sale in Harper’s or Leslie’s magazines. Most common are round metal tokens, made from a bit of lead or copper or perhaps an old coin, and crudely stamped with the recruit’s name. Robert Lovett Jr., a die sinker from Philadelphia, contracted with the Confederate government to mint a one-cent coin, but also made military identification tags using coins he designed for both Yankees and Rebels.Ī number of Federal ID tags and badges have been discovered battlefields have offered up several others were found amid mementos marking a family’s history, or tucked away in an old trunk. (But Bayless Sylvester Burnett was judged too old for action and ordered from the field.) Their father, Bayless, fearing one or more of his sons might die in anonymity, made the trip to Cumberland Gap to deliver the dog tags he had made for each son-and to fight alongside them. In Union County, Tenn., the six Burnett brothers took up arms against the North. Little anecdotal evidence exists of Confederate soldiers using identifying items, although surely some did. There was space to record a soldier’s name, company, regiment, brigade, division and corps. Christian Commission supplied 40,000 Union soldiers with “personal identifiers,” small pieces of paper with a metal grommet for a string to run through and attach to one’s uniform. Of the more than 325,000 Federal soldiers buried in national cemeteries, almost 149,000 are marked “unknown.” By war’s end, more than 40 percent of Union Civil War dead remained unknown. The appeal was denied the soldiers were left to their own devices. In May 1862, a John Kennedy of New York wrote a letter to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton suggesting each Union soldier be issued an identifying tag. Government-issued identification tags we now know as “dog tags” were nonexistent during the Civil War, despite the obvious need for them. Often, when one side was driven from the field in defeat, casualties were left behind and disposed of unceremoniously-by the enemy-in unmarked graves. Without a comrade close by to witness his death, he would pass unnoticed. If a beloved father, brother or son fell in a hotly contested battle, he might have been quickly buried in an unmarked and sometimes mass grave. Likewise, when Johnny Reb was concerned with being lost for all time, he might jot his name and hometown on a piece of paper and slip it into his pocket.ĭuring the Civil War, there was no “knock at the door” or telegram delivered by hand to notify family of a loved one who was unaccounted for-missing in action. ![]() Some carried identity tags carved from wood. What caused those fallen Union troops to cut marks into their metal plates? Perhaps they were taken by the same apprehension that prompted Union soldiers at Cold Harbor, troubled that loved ones back home might never discover what happened to them if they fell in battle, to pin bits of paper bearing their names to their uniforms. Found among the bones the next day were armor breastplates with initials carved in them. Leaving his tent to investigate, he soon discovered a ghastly sight- half-buried human skeletal remains strewn throughout a pine grove, just visible in the darkness. ![]() Just around midnight Chamberlain was roused from his sleep as his horse stirred at its tether. ![]() Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and his men stopped to camp near Hanover Court House in Virginia. Shortly after the surrender at Appomattox, Union Maj.
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