I am an alumnus of the University of Alabama, an amateur historian, and a metal detector. I can say unequivocally that the ACC buttons were used by the University of Alabama as at least a couple of hundred have been found on and around the campus, and there are at least a half dozen uniforms bearing the buttons still extant. The earliest of these uniforms belonged to a faculty member, Captain E. A. Smith, and is housed at the State Department of Archives and History. It is a double-breasted officer's frock that bears rmdc Scovill buttons. The latest uniform I have seen is a Spanish-American War style cadet uniform bearing large-letter backmark dm Scovill buttons. The remainder of the uniforms are 1870-1890 swallow tail cadet coats with probably 30 or more buttons each.

As to the buttons themselves, by far the most common (~75%) are the large-letter backmark dm Scovills, probably used from 1875 until 1905. Second in abundance are several varieties of small-letter backmark dm Scovills. Some believe these to be older, possibly as early as the civil war.

Third bears the dm mark "D. M. Scott/Tuscaloosa". These buttons were originally regarded as wartime buttons since David Scott manufactured cloth for the Confederacy. His factories were burned by the yankees in 1865 and he died in 1868. But according to McGuinn and Bazelton, his son, David M. Scott, also was in the mercantile business in the 1870's, and, ordered six gross buttons from Scovill for the university in 1876. The elder Scott apparently went by the name David only, while the younger's middle name was Marshall, his mother's maiden name. Thus the buttons are now considered post-war.

Fourth most common are Horstmann dm backmarked buttons of which I have seen four. Though the date of the backmark is ambiguous, I suspect it is wartime as two of the buttons were found scorched in the ruins of a university building burned by the yankees, and they bear small-letter backmarks. The rarest button of all, from the standpoint of those dug locally, is the rmdc Scovill. I have heard a rumor of one being found on the campus but did not see it.

In summary, the only buttons known definitely to have been used during the war are the rmdc Scovills. The large-letter Scovills and Scotts are definitely post-war. The small-letter Scovills and Horstmanns are ambiguous, but I suspect them as being wartime because, by the time the university was re-opened after the war, use of large-letter backmarks by Scovill was well established, and Scovill probably made the Horstmann and Scott buttons also.