PRESENTED TO A CAPTAIN IN THE IRON BRIGADE, CAPTURED AT GETTYSBURG.

Gold and enamel official badge of the First (I) Army Corps, Army of the Potomac. N.p., circa 1863-1864. The red enamel to the smaller circular device at center recto indicates that the wearer would have been of the corps's First Division. Approx. 1 in. diameter.

This corps badge is inscribed to its recto: "2nd Wis Iron Brigd / N. R." The N. R. is an abbreviation for Nathaniel Rollins (1832-1902), who served with the 2nd Wisconsin Infantry Regiment as a part of the Iron Brigade. Rollins mustered into Company H of the regiment on 20 April 1861. He was thrice promoted, from private to second lieutenant, then to first lieutenant, and finally to the rank of captain on 29 August 1862.

Rollins was taken as a prisoner of war during the Battle of Gettysburg on 1 July 1863 and confined at, among other P.O.W. camps throughout the Confederacy, Camps Sorghum and Asylum in Columbia, South Carolina. He would ultimately be paroled from Camp Asylum, built on the grounds of the South Carolina Lunatic Asylum, on 9 December, 1864. 

This is a very fine corps badge, with delicate stamped foliates and a pleasing texture to the lacquered enamel. 

Provenance: From the collection of author, historian, and extensive collector, Howard “Howie” Madaus (1943-2007). Accompanied by a small envelope with a description of the badge handwritten by Madaus.

The ambition of Madaus’s badge collection was to assemble representative examples of every major type of Civil War corps badge worn by the various branches of the Union Army, including specimens from each division of every army corps, along with numerous rare and previously undocumented varieties. In both its breadth and depth, his private holdings likely surpassed those of many public institutions, and a portion of the collection is now offered here for the first time at public auction. 

Howard Madaus was a distinguished scholar and curator whose expertise in American military history and flags earned him national recognition. An active member of the Company of Military Historians, the American Society of Arms Collectors, the North-South Skirmish Association, and the Maryland Arms Collectors Association, he built his reputation through decades of dedicated scholarship. From 1968 to 2003, he served as assistant curator of history at the Milwaukee Public Museum, later becoming curator of the Cody Firearms Museum at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming, and finally Chief Curator of the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

In addition to his museum work, Madaus authored numerous influential books and articles on firearms, the Civil War, and American flags. His groundbreaking Battle Flags of the Confederate Army of Tennessee (1976) established him as a national authority, followed by major studies such as The Flags of the Iron Brigade (1997) and The American Flag: Two Centuries of Concord & Conflict (2006). His expertise reached broad audiences through appearances on the History Channel, A&E, and PBS, and over the course of his career he emerged as one of the foremost authorities on United States Civil War flags.

[Civil War, Union, Confederate] [Relics, Militaria] [Medals, Corps Badges, Badges] [Gettysburg, Little Round Top, Culp’s Hill, PIckett’s Charge, Devil’s Den] [Prisoner of War, POW, Andersonville, Libby Prison]