[CIVIL WAR]. Provost Guard badge identified to Nelson Chapman, 21st Connecticut Infantry. 

Overall approx. 1 7/8 x 1 9/16 in. silver badge; original T-bar and clasp attached to reverse (minor toning and surface wear). Features reticulated star encircled by a 1/4 in. belt and buckle border. Belt engraved: "Nelson Chapman Provo Guard / Vols." Center star engraved: "Co / C / 21 Conn." A similar example issued to Isaac Chester of the 173rd Pennsylvania Infantry is illustrated on p. 173 in the Union volume of Echoes of Glory.

Nelson Chapman (1834-1885), of Groton, CT, was enlisted as a private on 14 August 1862 and mustered into Co. C of the 21st Connecticut Infantry on 5 September 1862 and was promoted to corporal on 21 December 1862. He was wounded at the Battle of Proctor's Creek (also known as Drewry's Bluff or Fort Darling) on 16 May 1864, receiving a gunshot wound to his right arm and shoulder, with a fractured scapula. Company muster rolls show him as "absent sick from wounds received in action at Dury's [sic] bluff May 16 '64" through May 1865, when he is discharged for disability. He was a patient at DeCamp U.S.A. General Hospital at David's Island, New York Harbor, and Knight U.S.A. General Hospital in New Haven, CT. See also Lot 410. 


The Civil War and American Militaria Collection of Bruce B. Hermann