Bullet and Shell Civil War Projectiles Forum
Relic Discussion => Miscellaneous => Topic started by: joevann on June 03, 2013, 10:07:54 AM
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This sure looks like a WWII fatigue fly button to me. I think I can even make out the "U.S. Army" http://www.ebay.com/itm/CIVIL-WAR-US-ARMY-SEW-THROUGH-BUTTON-DUG-BRANDY-/380651027848?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item58a091bd88#ht_129wt_1399
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Hi Joe,
If you rotate the picture so the blue corner is in the upper right, there looks to be an "S" at 1:00, not sure it is a "U" to the left of it as what I would expect of the angle of slant looks wrong to me. I also see what looks like a "Y" at 5:30. Perhaps "EM" preceding it (7:00 to 6:00), mostly a guess on them. Jon
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That 4-hole US Army button is made of zinc, and it dates from World War One. Here's a photo showing one, and its smaller mate, on a US Army uniform's pants whose manufacturer-label is dated March 15, 1918.
These zinc WW1 pants-buttons came in two sizes. Yours is the larger size, and says "US Army." The smaller version was for the pants fly, and says simply "USA."
Regards,
Pete
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Yeah, I've been collecting buttons for over 30 years and I was pretty sure it wasn't ACW. I didn't realize they were as early as WWI, of course, the same uniform was still in use at the beginning of WWII.
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Thanks, Joe. It makes sense that some of those buttons were still being used in the late-1930s, like a lot of other "leftover" WW1 US Army equipment. (As an example of that... many years ago, I was surprised to see that some old WW1-style "Doughboy" helmets were worn by US troops during the attack on Pearl Harbor.)
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The helmet that Pete is talking about at Pearl Harbor are pattern 1917A1. They are basically a 1917 with an upgraded liner The 1917A1 was adopted in 1936. This was replaced by the M1 in June of 1941.
Dan