Scarce Civil War privately purchased haversack. These were better quality than the issue version, but are just as scarce or scarcer, less from durability than from the sheer numbers made of the government version. Officers had to purchase their own gear and military goods dealers were happy to oblige with better quality and more expensive versions of this essential piece of gear. Enlisted men might also purchase them- we have seen some well-heeled Massachusetts privates sporting them either by state issue or private purchase- if their officers were not sticklers for regulations in the field, and they could tolerate the heckling of their comrades.

This one is a very good example, made of leather and painted/waterproofed canvas, constructed to form a double bag inside, with two auxiliary pockets mounted on one of them. The outer flap carries a decorative embossed fanshell and wreath design at lower center and a bound edge. There is small brass rivet at the bottom center that likely anchored a billet to engage a buckle on the bottom of the main bag to fasten the whole thing, but both are missing. The outer flap is lined on the inside with the waterproofed canvas to form a large pocket with a flap. Two cloth ties on that flap, now missing would have closed it by tying on two small, plain brass buttons still in place near the pocket’s upper edge.

The back of the haversack forms the back of the main pocket inside, made also of waterproof canvas. This in turn has two narrow vertical pockets sewn to its face, likely for a mess set, or anything else the soldier wanted to use them for. Both the main pocket and the two smaller pockets are closed by a wide flap at top, fastened by a leather billet that engages a small buckle mounted about half way down the bag between the two smaller pockets.

The haversack still has its two piece shoulder strap made of sewn-leather with black leather on the outside and (now faded) red on the inside, adjusted with a flat tongue buckle using a brass frame with half-round border designs. The shorter end of the strap, mounting the buckle, is fitted with snap hook on one end that engages a brass carrying look mounted upper side of the bag, as folded. The rear, longer strap is riveted in place in the other side of the bag. This would give the wearer to simply unhook the strap at the front (wearing it on the left) and take it off. We wonder, though, if the other end had a similar arrangement. The rivet used is a pretty standard wartime copper rivet and there is a short tear to the leather, making it look like a possible field repair if a brass loop on that side had pulled out. If so, it was a sturdy, common sense repair to keep it in service.

This comes with a brass stencil cut for “A.C. Brown.” This is typical period construction of stamped brass crimped over a thin metal frame so that a small inked brush can be drawn over it to mark any personal item. Unfortunately, a quick search for Union soldiers of that name not only turns up 35 candidates with those specific initials, but nearly 900 more A. Browns who do not have middle initials in the records, but undoubtedly had them. It might be possible to narrow it down somewhat by looking only for officers, but even that would produce too many possibilities to be certain. Nevertheless, this is a great looking, absolutely period haversack. We show a portion of a CDV of unknown origin, but clearly an officer in undress uniform, with one of these hanging from the chair beside him. The same design on the outer flap can be seen.  [SR] [ph:L]

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