Bronze, numbered "1966" and engraved in italic capitals "JESSE F. BROWN U.S.S. VINCENNES" on the edge, 33 mm, lightly soiled original ribbon with brooch pinback, very light contact, extremely fine. In its cardboard box of issue, marked "CIVIL WAR" on the lid, maker marked "THE BAILEY, BANKS AND BIDDLE CO. PHILADELPHIA" on the underside of the lid, tape repair and scuffing evident on the exterior, box near fine.
Footnote: After the outbreak of the American Civil War in April 1861, U.S.S. Vincennes was recommissioned on June 29th and assigned to duty in the Gulf Blockading Squadron. She arrived off Fort Pickens, Florida, on September 3rd, and was ordered to assist in the occupation of Head of Passes, Mississippi River, and remain there on blockade duty. Though the Federal warships did successfully deploy, on October 12, 1861, the Confederate metal-sheathed ram Manassas and armed steamers Ivy and James L. Day drove the Union blockaders from Head of Passes, forcing Richmond and Vincennes aground. Vincennes was ordered abandoned and destroyed to prevent her capture, and a slow match was set to the vessel's magazine while her men took refuge on other ships. However, the magazine failed to explode, and after the Confederate vessels withdrew early in the afternoon, Vincennes was refloated. After the Confederate attack, the Union sloop-of-war continued on blockade duty off the Passes of the Mississippi, capturing the blockade-running British bark Empress, aground at North East Pass with a large cargo of coffee on November 27th. On March 4, 1862, she was ordered to proceed to Pensacola, Florida, to relieve Mississippi and spent the next six months shuttling between Pensacola and Mobile, Alabama, performing routine patrol and reconnaissance duty. OnOctober 4th, she was ordered to assume command of the blockade off Ship Island, Mississippi, and to guard the pass out of Mississippi Sound. While so deployed, boat crews from the vessel and Clifton captured the barge H. McGuin in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, on July 18, 1863. Vincennes also reported the capture of two boats laden with food on December 24th. Vincennes remained off Ship Island for the duration of the war and was laid up in ordinary at the Boston Navy Yard on August 28, 1865. The veteran world traveling ship was decommissioned in August 1865 and sold at public auction at Boston on October 5, 1867 for approximately $5,000.00, completing a career that made her one of the Navy's most widely traveled ships.