W.H. SMITH MARKED US CARTRIDGE BOX PLATE RECOVERED BY SYD KERKSIS AT CHANCELLORSVILLE IN DECEMBER 1955

W.H. SMITH MARKED US CARTRIDGE BOX PLATE RECOVERED BY SYD KERKSIS AT CHANCELLORSVILLE IN DECEMBER 1955

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$550.00

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Item Code: 2026-1262

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This maker-marked cartridge box plate was found at Chancellorsville, site of Joe Hooker’s May 1863 painful lesson in humility, by Syd Kerksis, one of the legendary early relic hunters and collectors, author of “Plates and Buckles of the American Military 1795-1874,” and is still in his collection envelope, which he annotated with the date and location where he found it: in the area held by the Union 3rd Corps at Chancellorsville- essentially the center of the Union line.

This is the regulation 1839 pattern plate worn on the flap of the cartridge box, used throughout the war and bears on the back the stamped maker’s mark: “W.H. SMITH / BROOKLYN,” a major supplier of these plates to the Union army. He worked at No. 44 State St. in South Brooklyn and advertised “brass trimmings for all kinds of military equipments… warranted to stand US inspection.” He appears to have had large U.S. contracts both before and during the war, at least into Summer 1864, and also produced SNY plates for New York. See Bazelon’s additional note in the combined Volume 1 entry of his Directory, and see O’Donnell and Campbell Plate 528 for a similar Smith marked plate.

This has a pleasing chocolate-brown patina on the face, showing just a little light brown, with a good rim, strong definition of the letters, and just two scratches to the right leg of the “U.” The lead solder fill on the back is all there, level, gray in color with a few small scattered brown spots at upper left and right, and has both iron wire loops intact. These were decorative and functional, helping to keep the flap of the cartridge box down if the soldier forgot to latch it in the heat of the moment.

This is in excellent condition, has a recorded find location connecting it with a major battle of the Civil War, and has a great provenance to a well-known early relic hunter and author.  [sr][ph:L]

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