My CWPT Hat

Several years ago, I won a new blue baseball cap from the Civil War Preservation Trust. It’s one of my favorite hats; I can be seen wearing it here.

A couple of years ago, I decided to do something special with the hat. I decided to start collecting pins from Civil War battlefields and to display them on the hat. I’ve always liked the pins, but I couldn’t figure out what to do with them. Finally, I stumbled on the idea of wearing them on the hat, and a new tradition was born. It seems like a good way to honor the wonderful preservation work done by the CWPT, particularly since so many battlefields have benefited from the good work being done by the CWPT.

At the moment, I have the following pins on the hat:

1. Gettysburg National Military Park
2. Antietam National Battlefield
3. Monocacy National Battlefield
4. Richmond National Battlefields
5. Petersburg National Battlefields
6. Fredericksburg/Spotsylvania National Military Park
7. Fredericksburg Battlefield
8. Chancellorsville Battlefield
9. Spotsylvania Battlefield
10. Pamplin Park
11. Museum of the Confederacy
12. Bentonville Battleground
13. Averasboro Battlefield (thanks, Wade Sokolosky)
14. United States of America

Michael Aubrecht, who lives in Fredericksburg, has agreed to get me a Wilderness Battlefield pin (they were out last June when I purchased the other Fredericksburg/Spotsylvania pins at the Chancellorsville VC). There are obviously many more that I need; I have none at all from the Western Theater. The fun will be visiting the battlefields to collect the pins.

I’ve started doing the same thing for Revolutionary War battlefields with a hat that I bought at Valley Forge last year. So far, I only have two pins: Valley Forge and Guilford Court House. I have a VERY long way to go with the Revolutionary War pins.