1864 U.S. Colored Troops Before Richmond Medal. By Anthony C. Paquet. Julian MI-30. Silver. Extremely Fine.
40.3 mm, medal only. 37 grams, total weight. Suspended from a red-white-blue ribbon with a palm-leaf clasp that reads ARMY OF THE JAMES. Silver suspender includes a claw grasping a ball, jump ring to the medal below. Lightly tone in iridescent steel-blue, with some light hairlines in the upper obverse field, but otherwise free of significant blemishes, and nicely preserved for this rare and challenging type. The dies, accomplished by Anthony C. Paquet at the Philadelphia Mint, were personally commissioned and paid for by General Benjamin Butler. Many sources attribute these medals to Tiffany & Co., but Mint records show 197 silver and 11 bronze examples being struck in Philadelphia. Further, a letter from Reuben D. Mussey, private secretary to President Andrew Johnson, dated July 1, 1865 noted: "I saw at the Mint the other day some medals ordered by you for colored troops. I wish very much to procure one of them. I am not a 'colored soldier' nor have I 'ever shown conspicuous bravery,' but directly and indirectly with putting arms into the hands of ten thousand colored soldiers. The Director of the Mint informed me that it was necessary to have your permission to purchase one." This letter appears in private and official correspondence of Gen. Benjamin F. Butler: during the period of the Civil War, Volume 5. Butler conceived of the medal as an American answer to the medals issued to veterans of the Crimean War, but to recognize in particular the bravery of the African-American troops who served under his command during the Richmond-Petersburg campaign. He wrote in his autobiography Butler's Book in 1892: "…I had done for the negro soldiers, by my own order, what the government has never done for its white soldiers - I had a medal struck of like size, weight, quality, fabrication and intrinsic value with those which Queen Victoria gave with her own hand to her distinguished private soldiers of the Crimea." The legend on the scroll at the top of the medal's obverse can be translated to "Freedom will be theirs by the sword," an appropriate epitaph for those brave African-Americans who so served. The Federal government waited some 50 years before decorating Union veterans. Today, this exceptionally important and historic medal is avidly sought by both collectors of Civil War memorabilia as well as collectors of black history, and it holds the distinction of being the first and only medal ever struck to honor black troops. Its historical and sociological value would be difficult to overstate.
Price realized | 24'000 USD |
Starting price | 1 USD |
Estimate | 10'000 USD |