CIVIL WAR MANN’S PATENT INFANTRY WAIST BELT

$365.00

Quantity Available: 1

Item Code: 2024-211

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Call 717-334-0347,
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This is a very good example of the waistbelt designed by Col. William Mann for use with his patent infantry accoutrements. The belt is solid, full length, showing typical crazing to the finish from flexing and some rubs, but little flaking or finish loss, and good color. There are no tears or weak spots. The two brass chapes are firmly riveted in place and both have their upper and lower D-rings. The Mann buckle is in place and good. The belt has a visible oval Ordnance Sub-Inspector’s stamp of A.D. Laidley, who inspected work done by Emerson Gaylord, the major contractor for manufacture of Mann’s accoutrements, who supplied some 37,000 infantry sets to the government on contracts from July 1864 to January 1865. This is likely from Gaylord’s 1864 contracts since the inspection of the last 5,000 in 1865 was done at Springfield Armory.

Mann’s system was meant to balance and more evenly distribute the weight of the accoutrements, transferring it from the waist to the shoulders. He developed different sets of gear cavalry and infantry, with some variations on each. The infantry set placed the cartridge box covering the soldier’s belly and supported by two shoulder straps riveted to its back and running over each shoulder to pass through the upper D-rings on the rear of the waist belt, with the straps then adjusting for length by hooking back on themselves. At the same time, the waistbelt held the cartridge box close to the body by passing through loops on the back of the cartridge box formed by the shoulder strap and buckling with the simple flat brass buckle with tongue and two arrowhead belt hooks, essentially the inner piece of the standard oval US belt plate, minus the lead fill back and embossed sheet brass face. To help balance the cartridge box on the march, the shoulder straps of the cartridge box were fitted with two hooks to engage short shoulder straps on Mann’s patent knapsack, which also had hooks and straps to engage the lower D-rings on the rear of the waistbelt. The bayonet and cap box were carried as normal on the waistbelt, though Mann did experiment with using a steel scabbard with swivel for the bayonet, and also with both 40 and 60 round cartridge boxes using a sliding magazine tin giving easier access to the reserve cartridges in the box.

Infantry units known to have been issued Mann’s accoutrements include the 15th New Jersey, 4th Maine, 2nd New Jersey and a unit or units in the Veteran Reserve Corps. (See our other offerings for a partial set identified to a soldier with service in the VRC.) The 15th wore them in action at the Wilderness and Spottsylvania, regarded them favorably, with the regimental commander noting that other troops in the division had thrown away their old gear to use Mann’s sets picked up from the dead and wounded. The 4th Maine were less impressed, in part because much of the loading and firing in battle was done lying down, which put the cartridge box in the way, although the sliding magazine tin was thought a good idea.  [sr][ph:L]

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