French Regimental Button Mystery

France began to mandate and utilize unit-specific marked buttons for its soldiers in 1762. While process began too late for these buttons to see use in North America before the end of the French colonial period in 1763, it set a precedent for European military fashion that, in turn, was emulated by Britain in 1768. The regulation and design of marked buttons for the various components and ranks of the French armed forces progressed rapidly through time until a plethora of different button designs evolved to identify and distinguish every regular and auxiliary constituent element of that nation's military establishment.

Between 1762 and 1780, the French military establishment was reorganized six times. Each of these reorganizations resulted in the formation of new regiments, the dissolution or renaming of old ones, and the merging of others into consolidated units bearing either new or old names. Through all these and later changes, however, one thing remained constant. Each French infantry regiment was assigned a name and a corresponding regimental number, and that number was placed on the buttons of the men in the regiment to which that designation had been assigned. As a matter of standard practice but with a few exceptions, these infantry buttons bore their appropriate regimental numbers in their centers. On each button, this number was encircled by a foliole, or foliated broken line, with a dot in the center between the disconnected ends of that line. The entirety of this design was inset from the outer edge of the button. Other button and insignia designs were created for and assigned to the other regular and auxiliary elements of the French military establishment.

Students, collectors, and collections administrators dealing with French military uniform buttons of this period should remain cognizant of several considerations related to French military buttons and uniform goods in general:

The uniforms for each regiment were normally rotated every two years on a staggered basis. Therefore, it was not standard practice for an entire regiment receive its entire complement of replacement uniform goods at the same time, and a soldier who transferred into one regiment from another would still have worn his old uniform until it was replaced through fresh regimental issue or attrition. Normally, each regiment's colonel would order uniforms for his men. The cost of these uniforms would be deducted from the soldiers' pay. This both allowed the regimental commander to make a profit and insured that the unit's supply of uniform goods would be monitored and maintained.

If a regiment received new uniforms soon or immediately following a change of regulations for that unit and new uniform regulations were issued a year or two later, there would have been a period following the issue of those newer regulations during which at least some the troops in each regiment would still have been wearing their older uniforms (and buttons) until all the soldiers in the regiment received new, regulation issue clothing during the course of the regular two-year replacement cycle.

"White metal" and "yellow metal" button colors in the French military establishment did not necessarily imply, respectively, pewter and brass buttons for enlisted personnel as was the norm in the British, Spanish, and American armed forces. French "White metal" enlisted issue uniform buttons were usually made of a conventional or "lighter than usual" brass or bronze alloy coated with an inexpensive but attractive mixture of tin and mercury to impart a silver-like, or "white", appearance. This coating almost invariably quickly erodes away when the artifact upon which it is applied is interred in the ground, leaving the button or other, similarly treated metallic object to be subsequently recovered bearing little or no trace of its having ever been thus coated or plated.

French enlisted personnel most commonly wore one-piece, solid cast (and occasionally subsequently die-stamped) buttons with durable, "turret"-like, integrally cast, tapered rectanguloid and double perforated shanks. This shank configuration was unique to French manufacture and use, and it was retained in service through and beyond the Napoleonic period.

French military officers' buttons were of the same construction as those worn by officers of their European and American counterparts. These buttons were of stamped gilt or silver (or silver plated) foil which was crimped around perforated bone or wood backs. Crossing catgut cords were threaded through the backs' perforations to provide for their attachment to the uniforms upon which they were to be affixed. These "bone-backed" buttons were infamously unpopular with the officers who wore them, and soon after the American War for Independence they were phased out of service by Britain, Spain, and the United States. However, France continued to use these buttons until the end of the Napoleonic period.​