“WAR OF 1861” SILVER IDENTIFICATION SHIELD OF DENNIS TITUS - 31st NEW JERSEY, LATER IN THE 11th PA CAVALRY

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Dog tags were not an item of issue in the Civil War and soldiers wishing to carry some ready form of identification were thrown upon their own resources, with various commercial suppliers offering a variety for purchase, usually having the form of a medal or badge of some sort. This is an excellent condition wartime silver identification badge in the form of a shield, stamped with reeded and dotted border, small flourishes in the corners and stamped “WAR OF 1861”at the bottom, with the soldier’s name and unit, with flourishes, engraved in script in the middle: “Dennis Titus / Co. I. / 31st Regt. / N.J.V.” The T-bar fastening pin is in place on the back. The base of the small catch hook is there, but the hook is broken.

Titus enlisted 9/3/1862 and mustered into Co. I of the 31st New Jersey on 9/17/62 at Flemington, NJ. He mustered out 6/24/1863 at Flemington. The regiment was 9-month unit that served from September to December 1862 in a provisional brigade in Casey’s division (a temporary training and outfitting assignment) in the Military District of Washington. It was then assigned to Provost Guard duty with the Army of the Potomac from December to January 1863, before moving into Paul’s 3rd Brigade of Wadsworth’s 1st Division of the Reynold’s 1st Army Corps. At Chancellorsville Hooker decided to order Reynolds up from Fredericksburg to anchor the right of his line, facing west, late on May 1, but messages were delayed and the corps did not move until daylight on May 2, with Wadsworth’s division not back on the north side of the river and on the march until late morning, with the result that they did not arrive until Jackson had already shattered the 11th Corps. They reached the field in time to anchor the new right of the line between the 5th Corps and the river on May 3, but the fighting had shifted to the southern tip of Hooker’s salient and the regiment escaped with no casualties. They were mustered out on June 24, 1863, but not without loss, 39 men having died of sickness, disease or accidents during their service.

Born Sept. 26, 1842 in Pennsylvania, he shows up as an 18 year-old farm laborer in Knowlton, NJ, in the 1860 census, but according to an obituary worked as a carpenter in Dover, NJ, at some point. He had additional service in Co. H of the 11th PA Cavalry, serving from Dec. 15, 1863 to Aug. 13, 1865.  He was married by 1869 when the couple had a daughter and moved to a farm near Addison, NY. He was hospitalized briefly at the US National Home for Disabled Soldiers in Bath NY from late December 1905 to early January 1906. His wife passed away in 1919 and he died March 5, 1923, at Addison, survived by two daughters and a son.  [sr]][ph:L]

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