United States. A Veteran Corps of Artillery of the State of New York Membership Badge, c.1920

(VCASNY). In bronze gilt with red, white and blue enamels, marked "102" in blue enamels on the reverse of the grenade surmounting the badge, measuring 33 mm (w) x 43.5 mm (h), intact enamels, extremely fine.

Footnote: The Veteran Corps of Artillery of the State of New York (VCASNY) is an American historic militia organization founded at the end of the American Revolutionary War for the purpose of preventing another British invasion of New York City. At the time of the American Revolution, the British Colonies in North America did not have a regular standing army. Instead the colonies depended on an independent militia made up mostly of civilian farmers, with few weapons and controlled by the individual colony. While the Continental Congress established a regular army in June 1775, this was more of a formality rather than a reality. In 1776 George Washington wrote "I am wearied to death all day with a variety of perplexing circumstances, disturbed at the conduct of the militia, whose behavior and want of discipline has done great injury to the other troops, who never had officers, except in a few instances, worth the bread they eat". In other words, while the success of the militia itself is debatable, both the regular army and local militia were used to win American Independence. The official end to the American Revolutionary War did not occur until 1783 when the Treaty of Paris was signed. Until then, British troops, ships and Tories were present and active in New York City, and in fact, Britain would maintain a presence in the United States until 1815 when the War of 1812 ended. They are currently headquartered at Manhattan’s 7th Regiment Armory in the City of New York. Under federal law, they are part of the Organized Militia of the State of New York, and under state law it is an Independent Military Organization and an Historic Military Command. Private, Federal and State records indicate that there has been, and may still be, a lot of debate on this question even since the early days of the VCASNY. Some government authorities, have considered them an Organized Militia, while others still refer to them as an unorganized militia. In either case, it seems that regardless of their legal definition, the VCASNY has enjoyed fruitful relations with the United States Army, the New York Guard, New York Division of Military and Naval Affairs, and others. This appears to be especially true during the time frame of the First World War, when the VCASNY volunteered for several missions, and received federal, and state backing.