online catalog

• What's New
• Reduced Price Items
• Artillery
• Books
• Bottles
• Buttons
• Confederate
• Contemporary Artist Prints
  • Framed Prints
  • Unframed Prints
• Currency, Bonds & Tokens
• Documents & Paper Goods
  • Art
  • Broadsides
  • Commissions
  • Discharges
  • Letters
  • Newspapers
  • Signatures
• Edged Weapons
  • Bayonets
  • Knives
  • Scabbards
  • Swords
• Firearms
  • Carbines
  • Cartridges & Gun Tools
  • Handguns
  • Holsters
  • Longarms
• Gettysburg Items
• Identified Items
  • Accoutrements
  • Edged Weapons
  • Firearms
  • Personal Items
  • Photography
  • Uniforms & Cloth
• Medical Items
• Military Accoutrements
  • Buckles/Plates
  • Canteens
  • Insignia & Badges
  • Leather
    • Belts
    • Cap & Cartridge Boxes
    • Haversacks / Knapsacks
    • Holsters
    • Scabbards
  • Spurs
• Personal Items
  • Amusements
  • Cooking
  • Jewelry
  • Personal Hygiene
  • Sewing
  • Smoking
  • Writing
• Photography
  • Albumens
  • Albums
  • Cabinet Cards
  • CDVs
    • Identified CDVs
    • Unidentified CDVs
  • Hard Images
    • Ambrotypes
    • Daguerreotypes
    • Tintypes
  • Stereoviews
• Relics
• Stock Items
  • Books
  • Clothing
  • Riker Cases
  • Shell Bases
  • Wood Display Cases
• Uniforms & Cloth
  • Flags
  • Headgear
  • Sashes & Hat Cords
  • Uniforms
• Veteran Memorabilia
  • GAR
  • UCV
• WWI / WWII
  • Equipment
  • Posters

M1851 ENLISTED MAN’S SWORD BELT - KNOX FAMILY, FREDERICKSBURG, VA

Hover to zoom

This model 1851 enlisted man’s sword belt came from the collection of Civil War relics and family mementos retained by the Knox family of Fredericksburg, VA. The family was large, prosperous, and prominent in the community. A large collection of family letters titled “The Circle Unbroken” dealing with letters from the Civil War years has been published and is widely available. At least four sons saw service in the Confederate army during the war: three in the 30^th Va, and one with the VMI battalion seeing action in the trenches of Petersburg. After the war two of them, Robert T. Knox and younger brother James S. Knox, opened a store, “R.T. Knox & Bro.” in Fredericksburg with war relics on display among their retail offerings. We have had at least one other piece from their display with one of their large display placards, written in black ink on a white card with red and blue border lines (giving the effect of a red, white and blue border.) An 1870 advertisement for the operation offering groceries, etc., and at some point, they were also in business selling coal and describing themselves as “manufacturers of sumac & grinders of bones” according to one secondary source, with the operation, perhaps at a different location in town, was described as a “store and factory/processing plant.” (If horse and cattle bones were in demand, the numerous battlefields and army camps in the area may have been ready source of supply.)

This belt and plate were left in the possession of the present-day ancestors of the Knox family. The belt plate is the three-piece wreath type with one small section of the nickel applied wreath going past the eagles’ wing tips. Both plate and keeper are stamped with matching numbers “754”. The leather is somewhat stiffened but, completely solid and intact. The rear of the belt plate is scratched deeply “W. U. Knox 1890”.

William Uchtred Knox, youngest child and son of Lt. Robert T. Knox (30^th VA Inf.) and Etta Brockenbrough Knox. William was born August 10, 1877 and died at age 22 on May 28, 1900 at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD. He had been working in Ecuador for the Guayaquill Railway and Construction Company for seven months, but the physical stresses he endured there caused a complete physical breakdown, resulting in his death in May, 1900. At the outbreak of the Spanish American War, William was a corporal of Company K of the Washington Guards (Fredericksburg), serving for six months at Camp Alger, near Washington, DC.

Given the location of the Knox family in Fredericksburg, most of their recovered and donated relics likely came from the area, which could extend at least as far as the Spotsylvania battlefield, about 12 miles away.

This well used Model 1851 sword belt measures approximately 36” in length and approximately 1.75” in width, with stitched leather/ two copper rivet reinforcing. The model 1851 regulation sword belt was issued to enlisted cavalry before and during the Civil War, and could be seen on enlisted artillerymen and non-commissioned officers as well.   [stp][ph:L]

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

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

MAY BE PURCHASED THROUGH OUR LAYAWAY PROGRAM.

CLICK HERE FOR OUR POLICIES AND TERMS.

THANK YOU!

Inquire »