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    71st Infantry Sergeant Photo circa ? 1890s


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    Guest Rick Research
    Posted

    This just arrived today (from Deepest Darkest Bavaria of all unlikely places :cheers: ) and if I am dredging the right channel in my silting-up memory banks...

    71st was a New York City volunteer unit?

    Focus is too soft to more than make out (at least I can't) that the Cross is for "Marksman" with a "USV" (United Staes Volunteers) bar and some sort of bow-tie date ? bar, and presumably the state emblem in center of the cross. Also odd is the SINGLE "Civil War Corps"-like device he wears on ONLY his left collar. = ?

    Can anybody place and date and identify this any further? Not a thing written on it, alas.

    Guest Rick Research
    Posted

    Ahhhhh! I couldn't read the bow tie or date, and it was driving me NUTS trying to wish New York's state motto out of what was visible around the seal...

    hard to do from "Small Arms Practice!" :speechless1::cheeky::cheers:

    Posted

    That's the Span-Am era Fifth Corps badge on his collar (red enamel with gilt border).

    Paul Till's book on New York awards indicates the "18-USV-98" bars were simply to denote war service. However, other states (Pennsylvania and Massachusetts) had specific marksmanship badge designs for the Spanish-American War. I believe that the New York "USV" and "USN" bars, like the other states' badges, denoted a marksmanship qualification while in federal service for the war.

    Guest Rick Research
    Posted

    Ahhhh, so the ? cap badge being worn here on his collar is a VERY early version of the right shoulder patch for combat units? Was this authorized, or just a Personal Fashion Statement?

    My Marine great uncle Carl spent the Span-Am aboard the U.S.S. Constitution (in Boston harbor then as now) which was the closest any of my lot ever got to Cuba!

    Posted

    I think the corps badge was tolerated, rather than authorized. It probably came down as soon as the federal and state campaign medals were issued.

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