AMERICAN CIVIL WAR CAMPAIGN MEDAL AND RIBBON

American Civil War campaign medal made in USA. 1861-1865

This full size campaign medal ("ring top" type) 

Medal was made in the U.S.A. and has the manufacturers mark designation assigned by the Institute of Heraldry under the pin.

Awarded for service in the Regular or Volunteer Army, or in the Militia, in the service of the United States in the War Between the States (also known as the Civil War), between April 15, 1861 and April 9, 1865.

Although the Army Civil War Campaign Medal was not established by the War Department until January 21, 1907, the directives that made it possible were first issued in January, 1905. The War Department's General Orders 4, dated January 11, 1905, announced that campaign badges would be issued as uniform articles to both Company-Grade Officer men and officers to commemorate service rendered (or to be rendered) in campaign.

Badges rather than medals were authorized because, in the opinion of the Judge Advocate General of the Army, medals could be issued only by Congressional authority, but the President was authorized to issue badges as part of Service members' uniforms. The question as to which campaigns would be designated badge-worthy and what the qualifying conditions would be was relegated to a later announcement.

That later announcement came the next day in General Orders 5, which authorized badges for the Spanish Campaign, Philippine Campaign, and the China Campaign. Over two years elapsed before the War Department issued General Orders 12 on January 21, 1907, amending the earlier order to include authorization for Civil War Campaign and Indian Campaign Badges. Initially, only men who were in the military service at the time or would enter it were eligible for the badge, but a little over a year-and-a-half later eligibility was extended to retired Service members (legal representatives of eligible Service members who were deceased could request the badges).

In the center of the badge is the head of Abraham Lincoln facing dexter (to the viewer's right), encircled by the inscription "With Malice Toward None With Charity For All" taken from his second inaugural speech. Instead of the familiar blue and gray now used for the ribbon, the original version featured two bands of red, white, and blue; the switch was made in 1913.