This box and belt are in great condition and the belt still retains its neck strap. This is a nice early form of wide waist belt not using a fancy brass plate, but being adjusted and secured by long narrow billet sewn inside the belt on one end that fastens into an iron buckle sewn to the other. The end of the belt itself then overlaps and hides the fastening buckle and is prevented from hanging down by a sliding loop behind the buckle. The belt is flexible and has good finish and color. Still affixed to it is a narrow neck strap and cartridge box with twenty-four tin cartridge tubes.

The narrow strap is made in two sections: a shorter one with a buckle and longer section with fastening holes at the end, each stitched to the upper edge of the belt.

This strap could possibly have been worn over the right shoulder to support a sword on the left side of the belt, but there is no sign of sword slings. Or, it might have been merely to imitate an officer’s belt by its placement. But, it seems more likely to be patterned after the 1794 cartridge box rigs contracted for use by the light infantry of Wayne’s legion. These used neck straps as well as waistbelts to carry “belly boxes” that were, like this one, constructed with twenty-four tin “pipes” for cartridges rather that heavier and bulky wood blocks. (See Kochan, U.S. Army 1783-1811, 6-7 and Plate B1.)

The cartridge box is intended to ride on the waist belt using three belt loops on the reverse. The front flap has a shallowly scalloped lower edge with rounded corners and an incised border line. The latch tab is still present and attached to the flap with round stitching that has an impressed starburst or stake design applied at its center. The button to which the tab would have fastened on the bottom of the box is missing. The outer face of the box had a pocket of thin leather for implements or flints sewn to it, but only about a third of it remains, thought its outline is evident from the stitching. (This tanning process for the thin or higher-grade leather used for the pocket is to blame.) The tombstone side panels are in place, as are the belt loops.

Tin tubes are occasionally found in early European officer’s pouches and were even specified for use in dragoon belts in the Revolution. They had the general advantage of creating a lighter and smaller cartridge box. The use of a neck strap and the lighter form of box suggest this rig was intended for use by a member of a light-infantry company and to be worn as a belly box by feeding the belt and neck straps through the belt loops. Trim uniforms and compact equipment were intended to aid the rapid movements of light infantry on the battlefield. Militia units were quick to pick up on the latest military innovations, and it did not hurt if you cut a dashing figure on the drill field for spectators.

This is a scarce complete rig in very good condition. The leather has good color and surface with just minor scuffs, some loss finish on lower portions of the long strap, and losses to the implement pocket.  [sr]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

THIS ITEM, AS WITH ALL OTHER ITEMS AVAILABLE ON OUR WEB SITE,

MAY BE PURCHASED THROUGH OUR LAYAWAY PROGRAM.

FOR OUR POLICIES AND TERMS,

CLICK ON ‘CONTACT US’ AT THE TOP OF ANY PAGE ON THE SITE,

THEN ON ‘LAYAWAY POLICY’.

THANK YOU!