Sutlers were civilian merchants appointed to specific units to sell commercial goods to soldiers. They were frequently vilified as price-gougers, but provided a necessary service at some personal and financial risk and were usually taxed to contribute to a regimental fund. Sutlers gave tokens such as this along with cardboard and paper scrip, or “tickets,” as change in soldiers in lieu of money to keep them coming back for purchases, or they were purchased in amounts of a dollar or two on receipts against their next payday, which enabled the sutler to avoid having to record every twenty-five or fifty-cent transaction on a busy day. Sometimes they were redeemable by the soldier for cash on a payday, though perhaps only in specified minimum amounts or not at all.

J.J. Benson is known to have used 50-cent tokens of brass and of white metal for his business with the First New York Mounted Rifles. This is a good condition example of the white metal version and reads on one side, “J.J. BENSON / Sutler 1^st Mtd RIFLES” around the perimeter and at center “GOOD FOR / 50 / CENTS.” The other side has a large “50” inside a circle of stars and crossed flags.

The First New York Mounted Rifles started organizing in late Fall 1862 but did not complete its organization and start mustering in until October 1863 through February 1864. It left the State in March, 1864, and served first as infantry in the 22d Corp near Washington, and from May 15 in the 9^th Corps (Army of the Potomac) to mid-November. It saw its first fighting at Spotsylvania Court House; lost heavily at Cold Harbor where its casualties amounted to 64 killed, wounded and missing; and in the assaults on the Petersburg works in June it lost 18 killed, 82 wounded  and 2 missing, and at the mine explosion it lost 48 killed, wounded and missing, and another 76 at Poplar Spring Church.

The regiment was finally mounted in November 1864 and assigned to the 2^nd Division, Cavalry Corps, Army of the Potomac. It lost 33 killed, wounded and missing at Hatcher's run and Nottoway Station.  In the campaign leading up to Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, its casualties from March 28 to April 9, 1865, amounted to 62 killed, wounded and missing. In May 1865 it was transferred to the Department of Virginia, where it served until muster out in August.  [sr] [ph:m]

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