The medal is a cross of white enamel with gold edges, symbolic of the 1st Vermont Brigade, and dates to the Union Army of the American Civil War. Covering the cross is a shield of inlaid enamel with gold edges, which depicts a scene of Vermont as viewed looking east from Lake Champlain towards Camel's Hump and Mount Mansfield under a clear sky, all underneath the head of a white-tailed deer buck, a scene taken from the state's coat of arms. The shield is also reminiscent of the insignia of the 172nd Infantry Regiment, a Vermont unit which fought in the Pacific Theater during World War II.