Comments on: more unidentified militaria of mixed provenance

By: a genealogist’s sketchbook › The mystery of the Samuel Matlacks

a genealogist’s sketchbook › The mystery of the Samuel Matlacks — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:35:10 +0000

[...] Samuel Matlacks of Fairfield County, Ohio.” An officer’s pin from Matlack’s G.A.R. insignia. This was written by Nat Taylor. Posted on Monday, September 21, 2009, at 10:11. Filed under US [...]

By: Nat Taylor

Nat Taylor — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 14:27:49 +0000

And the enamel cardinals are from the 400th Infantry Regiment, HQ’d at Louisville in the 1920s & 1930s: my grandfather’s unit when he was a reserve officer. Again, quick answer from usmilitariaforum.com.

By: Nat Taylor

Nat Taylor — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 14:27:01 +0000

OK, I see from usmilitariaforum.com that it is a G.A.R. officer’s pin, surely from Samuel Matlack, who d. 1881.

By: Nat Taylor

Nat Taylor — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 03:33:18 +0000

OK, I’ve been looking around online and the odd-looking rectangular bar pin is likely much older than any of this other stuff. My grandfather Marvin Taylor was an infantry first lieutenant in the First World War. But HIS grandfather Samuel Matlack was an infantry first lieutenant in the Civil War. This pin is identical in design to Civil War-era shoulder strap insignia for infantry first lieutenants. But shoulder insignia were embroidered cloth, not pins. Was this some sort of post-war, non-regulation item for Lieut. Matlack, or was it regulation for use in certain contexts (dress)? I can find nothing online for such rank insignia pins but the design and color indicate pre 1878. Unfortunately there is no maker’s information on the back.