United States of America, Civil War Veteran’s Badge (?), in the form of a silver shamrock attractively engraved and named to Lieut. W. J. Collins, the reverse inscribed in fine running script ‘Wilderness. Spotsylvania. Po. Tolopotomoy. North Anna. Coal Harbor. Siege of Petersburg. Reams Station. Boydton Plk.Rd. Hatchers Run. 1st & 2nd Farmville. Capture of Petersberg. Surrender of Lee.’, suspended from a silver brooch bar inscribed ‘2d. Brigade’, good very fine, a scarce and interesting item

In the final phase of the Civil War, Grant enticed Lee and his Confederate army to battle in North Virginia. Lee showed great skill in this campaign and evaded attempts to trap him into decisive battle, inflicting heavy losses on Grant at the battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Coal Harbor in May and June, 1864. Grant swung south of Richmond to Petersberg hoping to reach the railroads that supplied Lee’s army and make Lee fight there. In this he was unsuccessful, Lee having arrived first, but Grant now had him trapped and laid siege to Petersberg in the summer of 1864. In the following spring he gained control of the important railway lines and Lee was forced to abandon Petersberg and Richmond, retreating to the west, and finally surrendered his army to Grant at Appomattox in April, 1865.