Private George S. Young, Company G, 126th New York State Volunteers. Autographed letter requesting a new corps badge. "Culpepper Courthouse," VA, 15 September 1863.

2 pages, 4 7/8 x 8 in., with separated partial third page, creased, with light discoloration and wear to edges. With envelope addressed to "Miss Louisa Youngs, Waterloo, Seneca Co., N.Y." Penned while his regiment was undoubtedly still recovering from the Battle of Gettysburg, where they had sustained 231 casualties, Young's letter describes the events at Culpeper, including a female civilian casualty of Union artillery fire, reorganization of the brigade, and his receiving of a new forage cap. He also requests that his sister fashion a corps badge for him, writing, "I wish you would make me a Corps Badge; after the enclosed pattern. there is three is three [sic] divisions to every corps, first division, red, 2nd white, 3rd blue. each and every man is obliged to wear one. they are furnished by the Government, but they are very coarse, and as I have just drawn a new cap I want one to correspond with it. I would like to have it made of blue silk velvet, the edges bound with gold or silver tinsel or cord, and of the same size as the pattern...our badge looks as much like the ace of clubs as anything else. it was for that reason Gen. Hays, at the battle of Gettysburg, said that 'clubs is trump, and we hold both [indecipherable].' (the two highest cards)."

Young’s request displays the pride he felt for the badge he wore and the Army Corps that it represented, and illustrates one of the early steps of the transition from the first die-cut wool badges to the ornate badges that would eventually adorn so many Union caps and uniforms.

The Civil War Collection of James C. Frasca