Hat brass

[colorsgt26nc]

Many companies used brass letters on their hats, often the initials of their company nicknames. In North Carolina, troops often had "NCT" for North Carolina Troops or "NCV" for North Carolina Volunteers. This is seen in many, many photographs.

Today, however, I can only find the letters A through M. Does anyone know a source for other brass letters?

[Rob Weaver]

Soldiers in the 7th Wisconsin wore the letters "WVV" for "Wisconsin Veteran Volunteers" after they veteranized in 1864. I'd love to find those too!

[federal musician]

I would also like to know.

Many New Hampshire soldiers had "N H V" on their hats.



Frank Long

[colorsgt26nc]

Brass letter makers of the world, hear our cry!

[Jim Mayo]

It is quite probable that these early war hat letters were special ordered from military suppliers. Many originals are different from the generic stamped brass hat letters and numbers used by the Union and sold by sutlers today. This is especially true of dug CS hat brass. CS hat brass is very scarce and if found, is usually from early war camps or battles.

[Bummer]

I remember during the early years of reenacting the sutlers at the NSSA Nationals used to carry loads of original stuff. Many of those sutlers carried original regulation brass letters and other insignia...naturally all the As and Bs got grabbed up by the NSSA 'A teams' and 'B teams' (I wore a C), hence are comparatively scarce in non-dug condition now days compared to other letters. But the reason I write here is that I definitely remember the boxes of regulation brass letters these dealers had containing many more letters than A through M. The original manufacturers of these letters made the entire alphabet. I myself bought a Q back then (thinking Company Q might be a good thing to reenact someday). Although only the basic letters are reproduced today, originals can be found in any letter (even J). Try hunting the Civil War and militaria shows.

[jgr1974]

Sounds like something to add to my list of wqanted goods to keep on hand!

If there is enough interest I could probably get some made!

Jeremy AKA The Mad MIck!!!

[Frenchie]

Go to S & S Firearms www.ssfirearms.com and download the catalog .pdf

Call them if you don't see what you want. Call them anyway, they have lots of stuff they don't put in the catalog.