Stamped Out

Civil War Tags

Imagine going into battle fearing that your loved ones might never know about you in the event you were wounded or killed.

This was a real fear for Civil War soldiers as neither the U.S. or Confederate governments provided their soldiers with identification tags.  Soldiers that understood that they may very well be injured or killed prepared for the worst by making their own "tags."

Many soldiers stenciled everything they were issued.  This served two purposes: 1) It helped prevent theft of the item and 2) it served as a means of identification if wounded or killed.  If the fallen soldier did not stencil any equipment, the mortuary workers used the notebooks, letters and diaries the soldiers carried to help in identification.  Some soldiers even wrote their names on strips of paper which they then pinned to the backs of their coats.

The soldiers that really prepared bought identification items from non-government sources before going off to war.  Harper's Weekly, Leslie's and other popular magazines carried advertisements for ornate gold or silver pins that could be worn on a man's coat.  The pins were usually shaped to suggest a branch of service and engraved with the soldier's name and unit.  Men who could not afford such pins could purchase brass or lead machine stamped tags from sutlers that followed the armies around on their campaigns.  Selling from roadside tents, the sutlers would sell many goods at highly inflated prices.

The tags the had a small hole in the top that a soldier could pass a string or chain through and wear around his neck.  There were several variations of these tags but most featured an eagle or shield and such phrases as "War for the Union", "Liberty, Union, and Equality" or "War of 1861" on one side and the other side had the soldier's name, regiment and company and even perhaps the battles the soldier had been in on it. The sutlers hand stamped this information on the discs for an additional small fee.

Civil War Identification Tag

An example of the brass identification discs a Civil War soldier would wear.

More dog tag information:
Civil War Tags
Spanish American War Tags
WWI Tags
WWII Tags
Korean Era Tags
Vietnam Era Tags
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Medical Warning Tags