This pretty South Carolina plate was recovered at Fredericksburg in 1963 and is so documented by the finder on the reverse in India ink along with his inventory number “47” twice on the solder fill. Modeled on the US army shoulder belt plate, these round plates were popular with South Carolina troops, bearing instead of the U.S. eagle with arrows and olive branch, a Palmetto tree with two oval shields leaning against it. The shields bear the state mottos: “animis opibusque parati” (“prepared in spirit and resources,”) and “dum spiro spero” (“while I breathe I hope,”) and the tree grows from a small mound with the date “1776” at center bottom. The motif had become the effective seal of the state’s military forces by the 1850s, showing up, with a few small variations, on a wide variety of its military insignia: buckles, buttons, hat plates, etc. By that time the state had at least 80 companies of Volunteer Militia (in addition to the enrolled militia, who were not uniformed) and the numbers increased as the war approached, so there was plenty of demand.

These plates exist in a couple of different die strikes and several configurations: fixed loops, spring pins, or belt hooks for wear on leather cartridge box belts, web shoulder belts, NCO style sword shoulder belts or adjustable bayonet belts, cartridge box flaps and even waistbelts. See Mullinax (1991) Figures 355-361 for some of the maker-supplied variants and alterations. He feels they were worn with the 1840’s-style rectangular “panel plates” bearing the same motif, or at least were supplied by the same makers.

The face of the plate has wonderful detail and about 90 percent smooth chocolate patina. There is some slight corrosion around the edge and in two small raised spots at left and right, not touching the central motif, created by corrosion of the iron wire inside where it turns up to exit the solder fill on the reverse to form two fastening loops. The loops, however, are intact, and show just minor rust. The solder shows some staining from the iron, but minimal ground action.

In addition to showing up with a spring pin on the reverse for mounting on a web shoulder belt, these plates show up with wire loops, as this one has, for mounting on leather. In this case the loops are mounted perpendicularly to the face motif, which Mullinax notes further marks it as a cartridge box plate, a state counterpart to the oval U.S. plate, those intended for wear on the shoulder belt having the loops arranged vertically or diagonally. As such, it is an even scarcer variant: there are very few Confederate cartridge box plates of any sort. Of course, a soldier might simply have worn it on a shoulder belt regardless. These plates went to war with the South Carolina volunteers and Mullinax notes that many were altered by the state for use as waistbelt plates to equip the large numbers of new recruits. This is a very good example of a scarce southern plate, unaltered, in a nice variation, and with a provenance to a great find-site. (See Mullinax (1991,) Figures 355-361; Kerksis, Fig. 409; Gavin, Fig. 129; and, O’Donnell and Campbell Fig. 472, for examples and commentary on these plates.)   [sr]

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