Figure 145
This brass ornament is a die sample or unfinished badge. After the circular device was trimmed from the brass square, it would have been worn as an officer's chapeau ornament or as a side ornament on the round leather dragoon cap of the period. The four arrows in the eagle's left talon are unusual.
CHAPEAU COCKADE, GENERAL OFFICER, C. 1840
USNM 604962-M (S-K 1156). Figure 146.
Figure 146
This large, round chapeau cockade with its gold embroidery and sequins on black-ribbed silk and its ring of 24 silver-metal stars appears to be identical to cockades that have been shown as being worn around 1839 by Gen. Edmund P. Gaines and Gen. Winfield Scott[116] but without the added center eagle. Close examination of this cockade shows it to be complete, with no traces of a center eagle ever having been added. The 24 stars would have been appropriate at any time between 1821 and 1836.
CAP AND CAP PLATE, JACKSON ARTILLERISTS, C. 1836
USNM 604780 (S-K 925). Figure 147.