From the Richmond Examiner, 1/30/1866, p. 3, c. 3
REMOVAL OF CONFEDERATE INSIGNIA. – The general order, promulgated during the last summer by the military authorities, forbidding the wearing by citizens of any portion of the Confederate uniform, buttons, lace, or any insignia of rank, was received yesterday by order of General Terry, and a guard was upon the streets on the sharp look-out for these evidences of “disloyalty.” A number of citizens, who were so unfortunate as to bear about their dress these relicks of the late “rebellion,” were surprised on the street, and submitted to be shorn of their dangerous brass buttons. Others, who had the audacity to expostulate, were gently marched off to the Libby Prison, where the scissors or knife of the official were applied, and the gentlemen thus shorn released. The following were among those who deposited their brass buttons with Libby officials during the day: Messrs. Charles M. Christian, Savage Smith, John R. Cato, J. R. Garrett, T. J. Anderson and George R. Willis. The latter gentleman sported a beautiful row of brass buttons upon a full breasted blue frock coat, that was wont to serve him in the holiday parades and musters of a city militia company, in ante-bellum times. We are reliably informed that he dropped a tear for every one of the dozen as they were clipped from his garment and stowed away in the souvenir basket.
We expect soon to hear of these insignia forming an interesting collection in the “Museum of Curiosities of the Rebellion,” now collected at the North, taken from the Southern people at divers times and places, by authority and without authority.