An untouched, non-excavated pair of Civil War US army issue enlistedman’s shoulder scales. These were issued first to mounted troops in 1851 and became regulation for all branches of service in 1854/55, replacing the old cloth epaulets and intended to provide protection against saber cuts, but effectively becoming two more pieces of brass for the soldier to polish for dress parade. These consist of a brass shoulder strap of overlapping scales leading to a brass crescent with raised edge at the shoulder. These are attached to the uniform by passing the open end of a long flat spring of brass that is soldered at the shoulder end to the underside of the crescent through a thin brass bracket sewn to the coat near the shoulder, with the spring then secured by a small turnbuckle sewn near the collar of the coat, which passes up through a notch in the spring and the scaled shoulder strap, and turns to lock them in place. This pair is the private’s version, having a simple crescent with flat bottom edge and plain scales. A sergeant’s pattern had a bottom piece to the crescent, making it fully rounded, and members of the NCO staff- the sergeant-major, quartermaster-sergeant, etc.- had straps showing rivets along the top side of the scales as well.

This pair rates good for condition, showing some dents on the tops of the raised crescents, and with a muted, age-toned color to the upper sides, with some scattered, thin, darker stains, but nobody has tried to improve them by over-polishing, etc. The undersides of the straps still have some of the black glazed-cloth lining, which is unusual- most of the time this is long gone. On one scale the lining has a long tear along one edge. On the other a strip along one edge is missing, exposing the underside of the shoulder strap, covered partly by the spring, showing the thin iron strap to which the scales are attached by rivets, the whole showing thin rust, but making clear the construction. Please see our photos.   [sr] [ph:L]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

THIS ITEM, AS WITH ALL OTHER ITEMS AVAILABLE ON OUR WEB SITE,

MAY BE PURCHASED THROUGH OUR LAYAWAY PROGRAM.

CLICK HERE FOR OUR POLICIES AND TERMS.

THANK YOU!