Nashville Military College Button

C

colonels wife

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I have in my possession two cadet buttons made by the Scovill Waterbury button company. I would like to know if these buttons are both confederate. The markings are in a channel and both read the Scovill Mg. Co. Waterbury. I know that the cadet N.M.C. is confederate listed in Alberts Button Book. In research I believe the Cadet W.M.I. (Western Military Institute) may also be a confederate button. Although Alberts book does not list Waterbury as a maker. Would you have any idea about these buttons and their value. Both are non-dug and in mint condition. Could not download pictures because they exceeded 500 KB. NOTE: These buttons came from the same location.

Thank you
 
Ma'am -

I'm not a button expert but perhaps this little bit will help.

These buttons are both considered period and generally accepted as Confederate. I had the privilege of brokering a Selma-dug NMC button about 4 years ago. It had a slight push but was otherwise clean and sold for about $500. They are probably one of the more sought after school buttons. Yours (NMC) should be valued somewhere over $750 if not closer to $1,000 as a non-dug specimen. The WMI button is listed as "too rare" to price in a non-dug condition. I'd throw a wild guess at something over $1,000 if a "book" price was available. If you can reduce the image size to something that the site will handle perhaps some of our other forum folks can pitch in with more and better information. If you decide to sell these I am certain that you will find ready buyers, tho the pricing and sale amounts may vary significantly from "book" values.

Please feel free to send me a private message if I can be of any further help.
 
Colonel's wife, just in case you don't already know:
I should clarify that these two buttons' backmark proves they were manufactured in the early 1850s ...by the Scovill Manufacturing Company in the town of Waterbury, Connecticut. That info is from the collectors' guidebook "American Military Button Makers and Dealers; Their Backmarks & Dates." So, your buttons were not made by (or for) the Confederacy. However, many students from those two southern-location Military schools served in the Confederate armed forces ...which causes collectors of civil war military buttons to give these School Buttons the "status" of Confederate-USAGE buttons.

The "status" difference between pre-war Northern-made buttons from the 1820s-1850s and buttons made specifically for the Confederacy's armed forces during 1861-65 may seem unimportant to typical modernday Americans, but it matters to many civil war button collectors ...so, the difference affects the market-value of such buttons. To us, there's a big difference between pre-war manufacture "Confederate-used" buttons and 1861-65 made-for-the-Confedracy buttons. :)

Regards,
Pete [P.C. George]
 
Hello Mr. George,
I was wondering if you could clear up what you were trying to say in this statement:
"To us, there's a big difference between pre-war manufacture "Confederate-used" buttons and 1861-65 made-for-the-Confedracy buttons. "
Are You stating that pre-war buttons that have been found in Camps are better (worth more) than the War date made buttons?
Thanks, Roger
 
Roger, the "to us," refers to some collectors (such as myself but I'm not nearly the only one) who feel that prewar Northern-made buttons don't have as high as a status/cachet/appeal as wartime-manufacture ...especially when it comes to "Confederate" buttons. Here's why:

We prefer that the odds be pretty high that the button we are paying big bucks for was on the CSA uniform of a Confederate soldier ...not just a pre-war militiaman, or a pre-war military school cadet. Believe me, MANY buttons have been dug from pre-war State Militia sites, and from pre-war Military School CAMPUSES. They weren't ever on a CSA uniform.

That same "sentiment" is why VMI Cadet buttons with the D. Evans backmark don't bring as much money as the Robinson backmarked ones do. Relic-hunters used metal detectors to hunt the (still-existing) Virginia Military Institue campus, and also the Kentucky Military Institute campus, and they dug HUNDREDS of VMI buttons and KMI buttons. None of those buttons ever got near a civil war battlefield.

Also... D. Evans continued to produce VMI Cadet buttons well into the 1870s (with the same backmark as some of his pre-war products). This is why NON-DUG Evans VMI buttons don't sell for as much as dug ones. Many collectors prefer there to be at least a pretty good chance that their VMI button (or KMI button) was worn by a CSA soldier during the war. Some other collectors don't care. I'm just telling you, since you asked, how a significant percentage of civil war collectors feel on the subject.

The situation has been aggravated by so many Ebay sellers advertizing waaay-prewar flat-buttons (often with European backmarks) as being "Confederate" buttons. Yes, some of that kind of button were worn by Confederate soldiers. But, I've got jarfulls of flat-buttons dug from farmhouse-sites and none of 'em were ever on a Confederate uniform. I've also got suspender-buckles from the same Civilian locations. I don't think I should I sell them as being Confederate. As most of you folks here already know, the definition of "Confederate" relics has gotten stretched waaay to far in today's civil war relics market. So, some oldtimer purists like me are trying to hold the line as best we can, by explaining the Facts about when (and where) certain items were actually made ...and who actually wore/used them.

Regards,
Pete [P.C. George]
 
I guess you cleared up some of my original question. You never mentioned the WMI or the NMS but I do understand what you said about (most were never used on a Confederate uniform). The main reason for my question was the fact that I dug a Mississippi "A" vest and a W. M. I. Cadet cuff the same day at a known Confederate Camp just a few mile from Shiloh, TN.
I just didn't fully understand what you were stating at first.

Thanks For Your Reply, Happy Collecting, Roger
 
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