United States. An Army Civil War Campaign Medal with Second Style Ribbon 1861-1865

Footnote: The Civil War Campaign Medal was authorized on January 11, 1905. However, the final design for the medal was not approved and adopted by the Army until the publication of War Department General Order 12 in 1907, authorizing the Civil War Campaign Medal for active federal service between April 15, 1861 and April 9, 1865, or service in Texas between April 15, 1861 and August 20, 1866. It was initially issued with a ribbon that had a narrow white center stripe, flanked on either side by equal stripes of red, white and blue. This ribbon was changed to a blue and gray ribbon in 1913, to match the ribbon used on the Navy and Marine Corps versions of the Civil War Campaign Medal, as per this example. Due to the extremely long delay in authorizing the medal, only about 9,500 of the over two million Union soldiers who fought in the Civil War received the medal. Civil War Campaign Medals were originally issued with serial numbers stamped on the edge. The first issue of numbered medals used the prefix "No." Later issues were prefixed with "M.No." and still others had no prefix. After the last contract of numbered medals were exhausted, additional orders were placed for medals without serial numbers.