Visitors find an oxidized Civil War button at Little Bighorn battlefield

Button now has a bluish tint (Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument photos)

Rangers at Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument are grateful visitors did not pocket a Civil War-era uniform button they found last week.

The general service button, possibly worn on a vest or on a jacket cuff, was found Aug. 8 at the federal park in Montana. These buttons also were used on capes for overcoats.

The visitors took a photo, left the artifact in place and contacted staff -- steps that showed they did the "right thing."

“These objects are still telling the story of the battle. If artifacts found on the field are removed or taken, that part of the story is lost,” officials said in a Facebook post. “The button was properly collected as a field collection and will go into the museum collection.”

The Civil War Picket reached out to the monument with a set of questions but has not yet heard back.

The officials provided few details, such as the location of the discovery.

Markers show where 7th U.S. Cavalry members fell

Many members of the 7^th U.S. Cavalry, including Lt. Col. George A. Custer and his brother Thomas, were veterans of the Civil War.

But it’s quite possible the button was not worn by a soldier during the Civil War. The War Department had a surplus of items from the conflict, and many were used during the Indian Wars, Stan McGee, chief of interpretation at the park, told Cowboy State Daily.

Custer and 262 other soldiers were killed on June 25, 1876, while battling Lakota and Cheyenne warriors.

The oxidized button depicts a large eagle and the federal shield, faded to a bluish tint. It would have been gold-colored and shiny at time of issue. The Union Drummer Boy website, which sells such items, said the buttons were worn by troops on both sides during the Civil War.

McGee and acting Superintendent Christy Fleming told reporters that there have been reports of items that have surfaced on the battlefield in the past year or so. “Shell casings, buttons, just relics of the battle,” McGee told TV station KTVQ. (Lt. Col. Custer, at right)

He told Cowboy State Daily that fires can reveal artifacts just below the surface.

“After those big fires back in the 1980s and early ‘90s, a lot of artifacts did pop up,” he said. 

Park officials picked up the button and placed it with the museum’s main collection.

Over 26,000 artifacts including weapons, ammunition, clothing and other personal items from the battle site along with over 120,00 archival documents have been recovered over the years, but this most recent discovery shows there’s still more to gather from the historic conflict,” the Billings Gazette said.