Item is an Officer’s Pattern 1851 cast brass sword belt plate with spread-winged eagle on the face and an oak leaf wreath that is cast as part of the plate and not of applied silver like the NCO variety.  The entire plate has a nice even smooth patina. The reverse has a narrow tongue also made of brass.

Scratched into the lower right corner of the plate is an inscription that can only partially be made out. It appears to read

“CAPT. A. W. (??)

CO. F or H

4^TH or 44^th REGT. MASS.”

Countless attempts to decipher the inscription have failed to match anything in the records. The inscription is no doubt from the Civil War period.

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