CIVIL WAR ENLISTED WAIST BELT WITH KEEPER RECOVERED FROM JAMES RIVER AT CITY POINT

CIVIL WAR ENLISTED WAIST BELT WITH KEEPER RECOVERED FROM JAMES RIVER AT CITY POINT

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$125.00 ON HOLD

Quantity Available: 1

Item Code: 1309-508

Offered here is a stiff bridle leather belt with sheet brass keeper but no belt plate. Belt is folded in half and measures 19” long and 1.75” wide. Stamped brass keeper remains firmly attached to one end. The opposite end features two round holes, but the plate is gone. This was recovered from the James River at City Point by a diver many years ago. Leather remains complete but stiff.

During the American Civil War, City Point was the headquarters of General Ulysses S. Grant during the Siege of Petersburg in 1864 and 1865. To serve the Union army, two huge military installations were built—a supply depot and the Depot Field Hospital. During that siege, City Point was one of the busiest ports in the world. In late March of 1865, President Abraham Lincoln met at City Point with Generals Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman along with Admiral David Porter aboard the River Queen. Several barges exploded at City Point on August 9, 1864, shaking the city. General Grant reported, "Every part of the yard used as my headquarters is filled with splinters and fragments of shell," and a staff officer wrote, "Such a rain of shot, shell, bullets, pieces of wood, iron bars and bolts, chains and missiles of every kind was never before witnessed."

Examination of the wreckage revealed that a barge loaded with ammunition had exploded, detonating 30,000 artillery shells and 75,000 rounds of small arms ammunition. 43 people were killed instantly and 126 were wounded. The wharf was almost entirely destroyed, and the damage was put at $2 million. After the war it was discovered that the massive explosion thought to be an accident had actually been an act of sabotage by the Confederates. [jet] [ph:jet]

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