Beautiful Rare Gilted War of 1812 Button - Irish/American Militia

On Friday the 13th I went on an exploring for new sites type of hunt, and did find on small homesite along the same dirt road I just found 4 others this past month or so.

There is a small depression and the iron hits were music to the ears. After about ten minutes I was rewarded with a somewhat high tone reading, but not quite in the Large Copper range. I dug and down about 6 inches a nice coin appeared. Rather crusty coming out of the ground and one side was full of caked on cement like dirt, so I knew it being in great shape was out of the question, but, I was able to tell that the coin was a LIBERTY CAP HALF CENT thumbsup

Now that my adventure for the day was already a success, I enjoyed detecting a bit more around the depression and got two buttons. Nothing special about them noted at the time, I put the buttons into the No. 1 Coin Envelopes I carry with me and called it quits for the hunting portion and went back to exploring the area and ended up doing a 3 mile loop type walk.

When I got home and first looked at the coin, I saw that it was a 1797 HALF CENT, darn, I was hoping for the rare and valuable 1796, but maybe someday, that was my 4th 1797 HC and my 8th Liberty Cap Half Cent overall, I have been very lucky at getting the early years Half Cents. It cleaned up fairly good, although the corrosion and wear is evident.

Now thinking my find of the day was the Half Cent, oh, I was so wrong. As I looked at the two buttons I found, I noticed one had a bit of gilt showing thru, so I got the Naval Jelly out and WOW!!!! I was totally shocked to see the Eagle w/Shield on the button and the words UNION GREENS! Later on I noticed the HARP under the one wing.
I quickly started looking through my Albert's and Tice books and to no avail could not find a similar button or anything on UNION GREENS. I could tell by the back of the button, which has no backmark or cast mark, but does have a great date indicator, the rectangled shaped "foot" that was still on the back, minus the applied shaft. That style button put the age in the 1810-1820 range, along with the type of Eagle.

So, now I was googling War of 1812 buttons, and Irish/American militia units. I finally came across some references to Union Greens being a Militia unit in Baltimore, Md, founded in 1807.
I contacted Warren Tice and another big time button collector and both concurred on the age and it has been agreed upon that most likely based on a few references found on the Union Greens that it is indeed a button from an Irish American Militia unit most likely from Baltimore and War of 1812 era.

I'm attaching some data I found on the Union Greens and I did write to the Military Museum of Maryland in hopes of getting more information on the militia unit. Also will be calling the Baltimore Historical Society on Monday in hopes of more information.

This button overshadowed my 1797 Half Cent find by a quantum leap and not sure, but it is probably a rare find and one that I will not forget, and I have found a couple other great buttons in the past, but this is right up there with them.

My son and I went to this site this afternoon and only one button was found, and nothing else, the site is small, it is also next to 1960s dumped trash so not the easiest conditions in the area.

So the finds at this site total, only one coin, and three buttons, one was a nice heavy Tombac, the Union Greens and a no backmark flat button.

Don

Here is one excerpt from a War of 1812 article that first led me in the direction of Union Greens being a Baltimore milita:

Prior to their departure for Canada, the First Baltimore Volunteers assembled in Baltimore to receive a valedictory sermon from the Reverend John Hargrove (1750-1839) of the New Jerusalem Church, who said “that a defense of [a] country’s rights, is among the best proofs of our patriotism.” [12] On September 28, the company began its long and arduous march for Canada to rendezvous with Colonel Winder’s command of the 14 U.S. Infantry. The Baltimore Independent Blues, the Union Greens, and a patriotic band of music escorted the troops through the city.[13] On October 3, the men reached Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where they were praised for “every patriotic citizen wishes them a pleasant march, a successful campaign, a glorious victory.”

Beautiful Rare Gilted War of 1812 Button - Irish/American Militia - UNION GREENS