Possibly Unissued US Plates – “Baby” U.S. Cartridge Box Plate, Civil War Period U.S. Cartridge Box Plate and Eagle Breast Plate

Possibly Unissued US Plates – “Baby” U.S. Cartridge Box Plate, Civil War Period U.S. Cartridge Box Plate and Eagle Breast Plate – Recently, we obtained the remnants of a large militaria collection gathered by a collector in the 1950s from Bannerman’s store on Broadway in New York City. The collection had been housed in a storage unit in a rural area in eastern Virginia, for many years. Contained in the collection was a somewhat wide range of eras of U.S. military items from pre-Civil War to WWI; we will be gradually cataloging the various items and slowly putting them on our site. Amongst the wide range of items were these three plates – a “baby” US box plate, a Civil War period US box plate and an Eagle breast plate; all three plates remain in excellent condition and appear to had not been issued. The plates do have some minor scratches due to many years of storage in boxes with other militaria; the breast plate has an unusual copper hue to its front surface, and one of its sling loops has some storage rust damage. All three plates could be readily utilized to attach to various accoutrements or simply displayed as is. SEE PRICES PER PLATE ON THE IMAGE OF THE PLATES.

The “baby” US cartridge box plate is the Model 1839 Pattern (or Pattern of 1839), a smaller oval brass plate (around 2/3 the size of standard Civil War plates) used on the outer flap of the soldier’s cartridge box, designed to weigh it down and keep cartridges secure, with common maker marks including W.H. Smith.

Key Characteristics:

• Model: 1839 Pattern.
• Size: Smaller than standard Civil War plates (approx. 71mm x 41mm), hence the nickname “baby”.

The Civil War period eagle breast plate is known as the Pattern 1826 model.

This round, brass plate was a federal regulation item in use throughout the Civil War. Originally adopted in 1826 for the bayonet shoulder belt, it was later used on the cartridge box shoulder sling or NCO/musician sword belts. The design features a spread-winged eagle and was manufactured by various contractors