Original Civil War Buttons

Start or Expand Your Original Civil War Button Collection

If you are looking for a hobby that does not take up much room, then collecting Civil War buttons may be perfect for you. Civil War uniform buttons used on military uniforms on both sides of the Civil War can be a way to get your children excited about history. You can easily find reasonably priced Civil War buttons for sale when you shop on eBay.

You can find many types of preowned Civil War uniform buttons, including

• Artillery - These buttons were used on overcoats of artillery soldiers during the Civil War, with each division often having its own design.
• Calvary - Mounted soldiers used various styles of coats with buttons on them, including mounted overcoats, uniform jackets, and mounted rifleman's coats.
• Dragoons - These Civil War soldiers often wore Calvary-style coats, but they had different buttons to show others that they normally fought on foot.
• Engineers - Since there were only 43 officers and one set of troops, these Civil War buttons can be hard to find.
• Navy - Confederate Civil War Navy buttons can be hard to find because there were not very many troops in the Navy in the south.

Many different companies made Civil War uniform buttons, including

• D. Evans & C0. - You can find buttons with this Attleboro, Massachusetts, company name on it starting in 1848 when they took over the bankrupt R & W Robinson Company, and they continued to make buttons throughout the war. The company name and the city are on the back of most buttons and separated by a star.
• Horstmann - You can find a variety of buttons marked Horstmann. Manufacturing of those marked W H Horstmann & Sons began in 1843 while those marked Horstmann Sons & Drucker date from between 1845 and 1849. Those reading Horstmann Brothers & Allien date from 1850 to 1877.
• Scovil Mf'g Co. - This company made many staff Civil War buttons during the war. Most are backstamped SCOVILL MF'G CO. WATERBURY NY with a space between the company and city names. Those made for troops usually have a period or a comma between the company and city name.
• Waterbury Button Co. - This company got its start in 1849, and it sold buttons only to Union troops. The back of most of their buttons say Waterbury Co. with a dot.
• W. G. Mintzer - You can find buttons and button covers from this company. Many of the button covers are marked 1861, and they were used for the smuggling trade.

You can find Civil War uniform buttons in a variety of sizes. Those measuring 18 millimeters and more were generally used to fasten the front of military coats. Smaller ones, usually measuring 16 millimeters, were used on cuffs and soldier's trousers.