Embroidered Badge of the Wilson's Cavalry Corps, Military Division of the Mississippi
Courtesy: Bruce
Corps badges exist in cloth and metal. This embroidered badge was privately purchased. Other privately purchased badges were made made of metal. This design was adopted June 27, 1865, late in the war and thus is rather uncommon. The classic reference "Civil War Corps Badges and Other Related Awards, Badges, Medals of the Period" by Stanley S. Phillips lacked a period example and offered only the approval illustration. The original design was conceived as a metallic badge with a suspension pin that was a Spencer carbine and a flag suspended below by a fine chain. The flag originally was to have been that of the brigade to which the soldier was assigned and showed numbers of the brigade above and below the sabers. General Wilson, however, felt that the design should be consistent for all units and this design with crossed sabers on a red swallow-tail flag may be what was finally settled on. The illustrations for the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies show this as the headquarters flag and also as the badge of the corps, supporting my conclusion.
After the Civil War badges were made by veterans to commemorate their units and many fakes and reproductions also exist.