What kind of button is this??

[history preserved]

Does anyone know exactly what kind of button this is? I found it at a second Seminole war fort. I think it is either a forage cap button, or an officers cuff button. It says United States on the back. Any help would be appreciated!

 

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[Ripcon]

It looks like and infantry cast pewter 1-piece convex button. 1815-1821 (Reference: Record of American Uniform and Historic Buttons, by Alphaeus H. Albert, page 23).

 

[history preserved]

It's not pewter

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

The closest match for your brass 1-piece button with no stripes on the shield I can find in the Albert button-book on American Uniform & Historical Buttons is button GI-51F, a US Infantry Officer button. That button is 21mm size, so I think the slight difference between it and your button is due to yours being a significantly smaller (cuff-size) button. We know there are more than just a few "early" cuff-size US Army buttons which are known to exist but are not shown in the Albert book, because relic-diggers found the only known specimen(s) after Mr. Albert died and his book no longer got updated.