General staff cuff button. Visible 8mm. In 24k chainlink cufflink mounts with obverse enameled legend "GEN GRANT" and four-star general's strap. Rear head with two lozenges engraved "Worn in Action" and "1862-1865". 

BUTTON WORN BY GENERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT DURING THE CIVIL WAR

A historic personal relic of the Union’s commanding general during the Civil War, Ulysses S. Grant. The general staff officer’s button, inscribed “Worn in Action,” was later fashioned into a solid gold cufflink, likely in the late-19th century.

Excitingly, this button and the button worn by General William T. Sherman (offered in the following lot) were recently discovered as part of an estate in Idaho. This occasion marks both items’ first appearance at auction. Though Grant and Sherman did not attain the rank of four-star general until after the Civil War, it is likely that the four stars on the buttons’ settings were intended as a retrospective emblem of both men’s ultimate status as the nation’s highest-ranking officers since George Washington, rather than a reflection of their wartime insignia.

Personal artifacts associated with Grant’s wartime service are scarce; examples explicitly linked to actual use are almost all institutionalized. The contemporary engraved inscription “Worn in Action, 1862–1865” ties the button directly to the decisive years of Grant’s ascendancy: from Fort Donelson and Shiloh through Vicksburg, Chattanooga, the Overland Campaign, and finally to Appomattox. Though further research is necessary to determine the precise circumstances of its preservation, the button’s later conversion into a piece of jewelry accords with the Gilded Age practice of mounting significant relics as presentation pieces. It can be reasonably concluded that the button was fashioned into this gold cufflink for conferral upon a fellow officer or other notable contemporary regarded as worthy of such a gift.

[Civil War, Union, Confederate]  [Relics, Militaria] [Medals, Corps Badges, Badges]