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http://hdl.rutgers.edu/1782.1/rucore00000002090.Photograph.000056489

doi:10.7282/T3Q23ZQF

artifacts

costume

Golden epaulets with no rank insignia, gold braids, blue and gold trim. On the bottom there is a small blue label of the company who made it: Horstman, Bros. & Allen, Military Goods, New York.

They were donated to the library by Robert Boggs Post No. 67, and are believed to belong to First Lieutenant Robert Boggs. As they do not sport the silver bar of a First Lieutenant, it is likely that they belonged to him during his Second Lieutenant or Brevet Second Lieutenant days.

Robert Boggs was born on October 18th, 1842. He was First Lieutenant of the third company to be formed in New Brunswick after Lincoln’s call for soldiers, the “Olden Guards,’ which became Co. G, 1st Regiment NJV. He was mustered in on May 28th, 1861, for a period of 3 years, but died of typhoid fever at Harrison’s Landing, Va., on August 6th, 1862.

He was the son of New Brunswick war hero Charles S. Boggs, who commanded the Varuna during the attack on New Orleans on April 24th and sunk four ships before his own was sunk.

According to the military regulations in 1861, epaulets were not required to be worn when not on parade or in battle. Many officers also dispensed with them on the field of battle, both for comfort and to refrain from making themselves a more obviously valuable target to the enemy. In 1864, the government issued General Orders 286, which formally dispensed with the necessity of epaulets for officers serving in the field.

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