RARE AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY WAR CONVERTED CARTRIDGE BOX

RARE AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY WAR CONVERTED CARTRIDGE BOX

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$950.00 ON HOLD

Quantity Available: 1

Item Code: 1032-205

During the course of our American Revolution many riflemen because they were needed desperately in "The Line", that is shouldering a smooth bore large caliber Brown Bess or Charleville type arm, forsook their rifles and took up these conventional weapons. A lesson was learned at the siege of Quebec in December of 1775. Here, in the night attack on "The Sailors Gate", American riflemen in a snowstorm were dropping their Pennsylvania/Kentucky rifles, with their small flash pans and hard to load fouled rifled bores and picking up, or hoping to pick up, a .78 caliber Brown Bess musket lost by the English enemy. Most did not and nearly all were killed, wounded or captured.

The box offered by us started life as a hunting pouch. It is what is today colloquially called a "Ball Bag". These had drilled wooden blocks of varying calibers, enclosed in leather surmounted by a large flap and below the hard wood block was a pouch or bag for flints, tools etc. This, are rare example, had a new wooden block exchanged for the old one. It had 24 holes bored to accommodate .69 to .78 factory made buck and ball or just ball paper cartridges. Additionally, the existing over the shoulder strap of brown or black leather was "whitewashed" to simulate the appearance of buff leather. Buff leather, a white leather processed from the water buffalo and regulation for both the British Infantry of the Line and the Colonial Continental Infantry of the Line was, during the war, a rare commodity. Accordingly, it was necessary to apply paint creating a false white finish simulating buff.

This cartouche or cartridge box is in fair to good condition. It measures 11 inches across the 5-inch-deep black leather flap. The box across the top is 3 inches in depth. The interior of the box including the bag below the hard wood block is 4 inches deep. Of the 2 whitened leather over-the-shoulder straps only 6 inches remain respectively, and these have been reinforced in an attempt to preserve what is left of their former length of perhaps up to 30 inches. There are tears and loses to the leather, but the box is stable and fit for display. In this case due to its great rarity and having certainly being worn by a soldier in the Continental Army of George Washington, frail condition must be overlooked.   [pe][ph:L]

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