It is a small gold badge dangling from a red, white and blue ribbon, small enough to fit in Donald Sanford's hand.

But to the Lavalette, W.Va., resident, that medal is a priceless treasure that links him to his family history and to the bravery of a previous generation.

The Civil War medal was awarded by the West Virginia legislature to Sanford's great great uncle, Allen T. Brattin from Bradrick, for "the service he gave to West Virginia and the Union Army in defense of the nation and to the benefit of the formation of the state," according to a letter that accompanied the medal.

The West Virginia legislature authorized the creation of medals for Union soldiers who enlisted in the West Virginia military in 1866, but many of the medals went unclaimed for years.

Sanford received the medal Sept. 23. He had applied to receive it in March.

Sanford said he became interested in genealogy three years ago.

"Nobody knew who my grandfather's mother was and when I retired I thought I would find out who she was," Sanford said. And he started digging. "I still don't know." But this digging has nevertheless unearthed some buried treasure: stories of family members who died more than a century ago, but whose contributions to their country remain.

Both Brattin and Sanford's great great grandfather, Nathan Sanford, another Lawrence Countian, enlisted in the West Virginia-based Company T 9th Regiment Infantry on the Union Army near the start of the war. In an Ironton Register story from 1888, Brattin recalled how he narrowly escaped from Confederate soldiers who came through Guyandotte, W.Va. and battled Union soldiers for their guns.

"It wasn't long before the town was full of rebels…" Brattin was quoted as saying. "In looking about for some way to escape, I saw a place under a house. It was the Post Office. The building was 18 inches off the ground… As I groped my way under the house my legs slipped into a hole, which proved to be a place where the ground was half dug out to make room for the bulk heading of a cellar for the next house.

"… I wasn't there long until I heard the rebels passing on the search for yanks only a few feet away. … All the time I thought they'd get me. They… got a lantern and thrust it under (the house). But by that time I had found a place big enough to stoop in and get clean out of sight…"

After the war, Brattin returned to Lawrence County and lived in a house on Vernon Street in Ironton. He ran a grocery store and for a time was a constable. he died in 1892 at the age of 63 and is buried in Woodland Cemetery.

Sanford said he has considered donating the medal to the Lawrence County Historical Museum for inclusion in its military display.