The original collection envelope with this plate from the Syd Kerksis collection indicates he found it on the Spotsylvania Battlefield in April 1954 in what he initially described as “secondary Confederate lines near Brock Rd.” and later corrected, crossing out “secondary” and adding “Salient Base.” The Brock Road cuts through the battlefield from northwest to southeast, exiting US lines as they stood on May 12, 1864, and splitting off from the Old Courthouse Road just after entering Confederate lines and continuing southeast to exit those lines just short of Zion Church. The road thus forms a diagonal line across the base of the Salient, which juts directly north and was the target of Federal attacks on May 10 and again on May 12, 1864, as Grant tried to break through Confederate lines with direct assaults.

The plate is the regulation US plate adopted in the 1820s as a buckle for the bayonet belt and then switched over to a fixed plate for the cartridge box sling when the bayonet was moved to the waist belt and is the standard construction of rolled brass, stamped with a raised eagle holding arrows and olive branch, and filled with lead solder to anchor an iron wire bent to form two loops for attachment to the sling with a leather thong. The plate shows good detail to the stamping and has a generally medium brown patina with light brown along the edge, more at the top than the bottom. The reverse shows a mottled light brown and gray surface to the oxidized lead-solder fill. Both loops there, though rusted, with the fill showing some brown stains at their bases.

From its find location this was probably on a captured Yankee belt rig and discarded. The original owner or the captor apparently had some down time and a knife handy, carving a circle around the perimeter of the plate in the soft lead solder, and then some longer criss-crossing straight lines, and a number of short checks toward the center of the plate. With some imagination it might give the impression of a Palmetto tree, but given the number of varied interpretations voiced, seems to function better as a Rorschach test. Let’s just say the soldier’s leisure time was far greater than his artistic ability. It is, however, a good example of how a soldier might try to distract himself for a few minutes in the trenches. The fighting soon moved on to the North Anna, Totopotomoy, and Cold Harbor. If the aspiring artist made it out of Spotsylvania, he had his hands full soon after.   [sr] [ph:m/L]

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