OVAL US BELT PLATE RECOVERED BY SYD KERKSIS 1960 AT HAMILTON’S CROSSING

OVAL US BELT PLATE RECOVERED BY SYD KERKSIS 1960 AT HAMILTON’S CROSSING

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$550.00

Quantity Available: 1

Item Code: 2026-451

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This regulation plate comes with Syd Kerksis’ original collection envelope with notations at top indicating he found it at Hamilton Crossing in 1960 (with about half the staff here reading his month as “June” and the other reading it as “Mar,” i.e. March.)  One of the legendary early relic hunters and collectors, Kerksis was also the author of “Plates and Buckles of the American Military 1795-1874,” which led the way for a couple of generations of relic hunters, collectors, students, and authors.

The plate is the oval US belt plate adopted in 1839, with larger plates used for dragoons and riflemen and smaller ones for infantry until the 1850s. The arrowhead studs used on this one had been used on the small oval US plates and made their appearance on the standard larger Civil War oval US plates in place of round or oval studs by some makers in late 1862 or early 1863, with the oval stud form being referred to by one contractor as the old pattern as early as Spring 1863. Remnants of the original leather belt are still in place under the studs on the reverse. The belt hook is fairly narrow, perhaps a sign of early manufacture. The lead solder fill of the back has a nice, level surface, and shows a mix of gray and light brown. The brass hooks show similar color. The hook has some light brown on gray-green. The face shows a very good edge, with well-defined letters, a slightly dappled surface and no dings or scrapes.

Located about four miles south of Fredericksburg, Hamilton’s Crossing became a  railhead and supply depot on the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad for the Confederate army in the Fredericksburg and beginning of Chancellorsville Campaigns with trains unable to proceed farther without exposure Union artillery. Given the generally Confederate occupation of the site, the belt buckle and remains of its belt may have been a battle trophy, or captured or salvaged gear being sent to the rear for reuse.

This is a very good condition Civil War belt plate with a good, recorded find location and a great provenance to a well-known early relic hunter.  [sr][ph:L]

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