Berdan Sharpshooter's Rubber Button

This button was dug at an Antebellum House site's well near Malvern Hill in 1996 near the entrance to Malvern Hill National Park. It should be easy to find details on the exact troops who fought there. I have not done so. In Tice's button book, there is a great drawing of Berdan's men skirmishing at Malvern Hill on page 137. The same drawing is in "Battles and Leaders of the Civil War".

I did not dig it. I bought it from a man named Paul Chandler at 301 Antiques. He bought it from the man who dug it in 1996.

301 Antiques
9552 Chamberlayne Road
Mechanicsville, VA 23116
(804) 730-1576

Berdan's Sharpshooter Button

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The Battle of Malvern Hill

The Battle of Malvern Hill was the last in the series of battles known collectively as "The Seven Days," a part of the Peninsula Campaign of 1862, which pitted George McClellan's Army of the Potomac against the Army of Northern Virginia and Robert E. Lee, its newly appointed commander. The aim of this campaign, the most ambitious ever mounted during the War Between the States, was nothing less than the capture of the Confederate capital city of Richmond. Fought on July 1 near the banks of the James River, within site of the spires of Richmond, this battle saw Confederate infantrymen attempt to take Union artillery emplacements, which held an almost unassailable position atop Malvern Hill. Although Federal troops were successful in beating back the Confederate charge, McClellan ordered a "change of base" (better known as a "retreat") immediately following the battle, and Richmond remained in Confederate hands until 1865.

Photos of various surviving U.S.S.S. headgear.
The seamless caps and Co.D 2nd U.S.S.S. cap were owned by Pvt. Leonard Small .
The other caps are, of course, the Gettysburg cap and the Smithsonian "Type One" George Hoff-made cap.

---USSS Issued Caps--