SELECTION OF DETROIT LIGHT GUARD BUTTONS

$150.00

Quantity Available: 4

Item Code: 0

Shipping: Determined by Method & Location of buyer

To Order:
Call 717-334-0347,
Fax 717-334-5016, or E-mail

Albert’s MG7.  BM: HORSTMANN & ALLIEN NY (rmdc). We have 4 buttons with a card which reads, “Buttons worn on suite of First Company of Light Guard organization in Ypsilanti before the Civil War.”

All four buttons are in VF+ condition.

The Detroit Light Guard became the 1st Michigan Infantry Company A. The Detroit Light Guard was first organized in 1830–31 in the Michigan Militia in the city of Detroit, and was known as the Detroit City Guard. On 24 May 1832, the Guards were mobilized for federal service for the first time. They joined the 1st Michigan Militia Regiment and served as a company under CPT Isaac S. Rowland. They joined a force of Army Regulars and militia to defeat the Sauk and Fox Indians in the Black Hawk War in Wisconsin, effectively ending Native American resistance in the Great Lakes region. The troops never saw combat, however. Exposure and the hardship of the march to the Mississippi River, coupled with an outbreak of cholera, took a heavy toll. Sickness and some deaths were reported. The militia unit was reorganized on 13 April 1836 as the Brady Guards under the command of CPT Rowland, and was recalled for federal service on 6 December 1838 to help state and federal authorities maintain order in the aftermath of conflict along the Canada–United States border in the Patriot War. They were mustered out on 22 February 1839, only to be reactivated on 1 March. They were soon mustered out on 31 May 1839.

The Brady Guards were reactivated for federal service during the Mexican–American War on 4 December 1847, where they joined with other militia companies to form the 1st Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment. The men were sent to garrison the various forts in the area to enable Regular Army units to move to the fight in Mexico. On 29 July 1848, the regiment was demobilized in Detroit. On 16 November 1855, the Brady Guards regained the name of the Detroit Light Guard and continued to serve state duty.

At the outbreak of the American Civil War, many state militia and volunteer companies eagerly rushed to join the Union Army, and often got to fight as a unit. The Detroit Light Guard was one such company, and was soon designated as A Company, 1st Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment, after it joined up on 25 April 1861. The 1st Michigan was soon mustered into federal service for three months on 1 May in Detroit. This "three-months regiment" would go on to fight in the first major battle of the Civil War; the First Battle of Bull Run, where the Union was defeated by Confederate troops. Despite this inauspicious start, the 1st Michigan was reorganized into a "three-years regiment" on 16 September 1861 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The Detroit Light Guards, now A Company, would have much hard fighting ahead of them. They would go on to fight in the Peninsular Campaign, the Second Battle of Bull Run, the Battle of Antietam, the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Battle of Chancellorsville, and the Battle of Gettysburg. After all this fighting, the men of the 1st Michigan were battle-hardened, and the regiment was officially reorganized on 1 March 1864 as the 1st Michigan Veteran Volunteer Infantry. These veterans would go on to engage the Confederates in the Battle of the Wilderness, the Battle of Cold Harbor, the Siege of Petersburg, and the Battle of Five Forks. The regiment suffered 15 officers and 172 enlisted men who were killed in action or mortally wounded and 1 officer and 149 enlisted men who died of disease, for a total of 337 fatalities. The men were finally able to return home when they were mustered out in Jeffersonville, Indiana on 9 July 1865.

Card goes with 1st button sold, copies provided with the other buttons. [ss] [PH:L]

Click the links below to see close up photos of each button

ITEM#                          PHOTOS

1152-80

FRONT

REVERSE

1152-81

FRONT

REVERSE

1152-82

FRONT

REVERSE

1152-83

FRONT

REVERSE

Inquire »

Inquire About SELECTION OF DETROIT LIGHT GUARD BUTTONS

For inquiries, please email us at [email protected]