17th Army Corps Badge

[P.Brown]

After doing some reading I have found that the 17th Corps had an unofficial badge prior to adopting the arrow badge in late March 1865. I found that this badge was a five pointed star. Does anyone know of original, war-time examples of this unofficial badge? Any pictures would be greatly appreciated.

thanks,
Philip Brown

[Swag]

Re: 17th Army Corps Badge

"I found that this badge was a five pointed star."

five pointed star for the 17th corps? The five point star was the badge for the 12th corps, then later the 20th corps when the 12th and 11th were merged in 64'. I never heard of the 17th corps having a five pointed star. I have found nothing yet pertaining to the 17th corps badge prior to March of 1865. In the General order issued in said month General F.P. Blake stated. "In it's swiftness, in its surety of striking where wanted and in its destructive powers when so intended, the arrow is probably as emblematical of the corps as any design that could be adopted."

[P.Brown]

Re: 17th Army Corps Badge

In the book Civil War corps badges and other related awards, badges, medals of the period : including a section on post Civil War and Spanish-American War corps badges by Stanley Philips I read those very words in the orders from General F.P. Blake that selected the arrow as the 17th Corp badge. But, below these orders the author of the book made mention of an unofficial 17th corp badge that came before the arrow. This badge was a five pointed star. There was a photograph of an original directly beside this description. This puzzled me just like it puzzled you Mr. Lamb. There was also a section on the 17th Corps medal of honor (established in 1863) which was also a star. I am looking for other examples of the unofficial corps badge and trying to figure out its prevalence and time frame.

-Philip Brown

[Latigerreb]

Re: 17th Army Corps Badge

A bit dated, but found the following - The badge of the 17th Army Corps of the Department of the Tennessee was adopted on March 25, 1865 by a General Orders, Number One of Major General Francis B. Blair. This was the second corps badge design used by the corps. The original design was a star, usually with three smaller additional floral-like projections appearing between the lower points and flanking the upper point of the star. This was dropped in favor of the arrow because it was too similar to the Twelfth Army Corps badge. -

Jim Tebbetts

[ScottCross]

Re: 17th Army Corps Badge

I have yet to see a photograph of a soldier wearing the early 17th Corps badge, much less seen an original example. Speculation has always been that they saw little use at all.