✅ SOLVED Confederate Engineer Insignia?

[smokeythecat]

Found in Virginia today at a Confederate position. It is about 1" tall and is stamped brass. The US Engineer's insignia is different. Ideas?



Except for the little tear on the left top facing you, it is intact.

 

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[smokeythecat]

Castle.

 

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[TheCannonballGuy]

Smokeythecat wrote:
> Apparently its not "regulation" Confederate, but just like the masonic emblems, or some of the "Texas" stars that are found.

That is correct. Unlike on the yankee side, there was no Official Regulation emblem "pin" for the Confederate Engineers.

I have no idea why somebody would manufacture a pin showing a "Medieval European Fortified Building" (to me, the structure is too irregular to be called a Castle, like Windsor Castle) -- but obviously, somebody did. I also have no idea why somebody would wear it on their uniform during the civil war. I agree with Machkin (and BAW), "Probably a personal item from back home." Seems a stretch, but maybe some CS Engineer did think it was "close enough" for an emblem to represent his branch of service. No "more likely" reason for its presence there comes to mind.

 

[smokeythecat]

I got a message late last night back from one of the biggest collectors in the nation who I have dealt with for years now and he has seen similar items used during the Civil War by individuals, especially Confederates, using this type of insignia denoting they were Confederate Engineers. Apparently there are numerous examples close but no cigar to the official 1851 Union "castle" than have been found on various CW sites. He also stated some of the bigger engineering schools made these and they were then used by an individual officer.

So, we'll mark it solved.