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SCARCE DOUBLE BORDER SMITH PATENT INFANTRY LIEUTENANT COLONEL SHOULDER STRAPS

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With only one Lieutenant Colonel per regiment, insignia for that rank is tough to find. This is an excellent condition set of Smith patent shoulder straps for a lieutenant colonel of infantry and additionally are made with the borders showing two rows of false embroidery with inner and outer of jaceron wire edges, a cut above the standard single row border. There are no bends to the metal, rubs or moth nips to the light blue wool centers and show good color to all elements with a pleasing, very slightly muted, aged tone. The silvered oak leaf rank insignia are in place, with good color. The dark blue backs are complete, showing just small nips to three corners of one strap that also shows a bit of fading, likely from the use of a different die lot in the fabric, or oxidation from resting uppermost, on top of the other strap, faces down. The straps are certainly a pair.

Military goods dealer James S. Smith of New York patented this form of shoulder strap on June 18, 1861, using a gilt brass frame stamped to imitate dead and bright bullion embroidered borders and using pins mounted on the back of the frames to secure a backing with the appropriate branch of service color, on which might also be pinned false-embroidered rank insignia as here. These straps were less expensive and also more robust than the embroidered bullion versions- not subject to snagging of the bullion strands or jaceron wire edging used on those straps. Smith especially noted the borders were easy to keep clean and bright by simple polishing. They also provided an easy way for an officer to show a promotion by just changing the rank insignia rather than having to buy a new set of straps.

This is a tough rank to find. They are in very strong condition and would make a great addition to an insignia collection, an infantry collection, or as part of a lieutenant colonel’s display. Needless to say, this was a real combat posting, with the lieutenant colonel positioned behind the right companies of an infantry regiment in line of battle to supervise that wing in the fighting.  [sr][ph:L]

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