I have a photo of an ancestor Austin Puett Gillenwaters (at least it's labeled with his name) and I have learned through research that he served with the 29th Iowa Infantry during the Civil War. The photo shows him in his later years wearing a coat with a medal pinned to the lapel. The medal is a five-pointed star hung with the point down and suspended from about 3 inches of ribbon. At the top of the ribbon is what appears to be an eagle. The medal appeared to me to be a medal of honor, but it doesn't look like any of the pictures of MOH's I've seen of the era and I don't see his name listed among MOH recipients. Any idea what this medal might be?

It is probably a medal from a GAR Convention he attended.
Bob

Thanks, Bob. Do you know of any links to web sites that might have images of these kinds of medals?

Bob, I think I found some images that look like the one I have in the photograph. It looks like a GAR medal as you suggested. Thank you very much for your help.