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Pair of Civil War–era full dress epaulettes with bullion wire shoulder brooms, gilt Federal Eagle with "A (in shield)" Artillery service branch buttons, and embroidered silver wire full colonel’s eagle insignia. The undersides are marked "RIGHT" and "LEFT" with no retailer’s marking present. The small button clip is missing on the right side epaulette, but the hinged retaining bars are still present on both. The thin red leather backing is worn through in a few spots, but the bright red velvet backing for the shoulder brooms is in excellent, virtually unworn condition. The epaulettes are housed in an oblong japanned tin case that measures 9 7/8" long x 7" wide x 5 7/8" deep. The case retains nearly all of the original japanned lacquer finish, with only some very minor spots of flaking along a few of the exposed edges, and on the remaining portions of the broken cover latch. The interior of the case retains a commensurate amount of japanned finish with a coiled pair of narrow leather straps with brass buckles housed in the central pillar compartment. A small paper label is affixed to the inside of the lid that reads, "Major General Nathaniel P. Banks," in black ink.
Nathaniel Prentiss Banks (1816–1894) was a Massachusetts politician, US Congressman, and Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts prior to the outbreak of the Civil War. Rejected for a Cabinet position in the Lincoln Administration, he was instead one of the first Major Generals of Volunteers appointed by Lincoln in May of 1861. Banks commanded troops in the military districts of Western and Eastern Maryland, and did much to quell the secessionist sentiment in the state which, despite allowing slavery, remained loyal to the Union throughout the war. Banks served as a Corps Commander during the Shenandoah Campaign, Northern Virginia Campaign, was given command of the Army of the Gulf, and later undertook reconstruction efforts in Louisiana. Opinion of his military career is mixed, his command in combat was not very well regarded by some of his subordinates, but he was widely acknowledged as an able administrator who managed to maintain civil order in occupied Confederate territory. He resumed his political career after leaving military service, eventually retired from public life after losing reelection due to failing health, and died on September 1, 1894. Since Banks was appointed directly to a Major Generalship without prior military service, it is difficult to connect these epaulettes to his Civil War service. As the Governor of Massachusetts prior to the war, however, he would have also served as the Commander-in-Chief of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts, and since the epaulettes do have Artillery service branch buttons, they may well have had some connection to that. In any event, this is an extremely well-preserved set of Civil War era epaulettes, and would make a splendid addition to any collection.
