Impressions Cs belt plate

Capt7thWvCoA

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Dec 10, 2014
Hello everyone, I have recently gotten a repro cs oval belt plate . Since I reeanact in the east coast and portray a Virginian in the Army of Norther Virginia . I was wondering how common was the cs belt plate during the war ? Was it used by Lee's army ? Any help would be appreciated.
 
CS oval plates are kind of overrepresented in all theaters of the war. Here in the Trans-Mississippi they're everywhere at events and I'm not sure they even existed here. Reading of plates the other day I was kind of shocked to discover that pretty much none of them had the back lead filled, which wrecked my word....

Oval plates from all I've read were very uncommon in the Eastern Theater, to the point they may not have ever been used there. But square C.S.A. buckles have been dug up all over the place, several I know of from Cold Harbor.

Main thing to bear in mind when building a Confederate impression anywhere on belt buckles, is one should always go with the most common, and in all theaters, the most common hands down were citizen/civilian jappaned roller buckles. After them I'd say square plain brass sheet buckles were pretty common, then brass frame buckles, then British "snake" buckles, Federal patterns, and then dead last Confederate ones like the ovals or squares.
 
What about state buckles ?
On state buckles - as an old relic hunter here in eastern Virginia I would list the following as the most I ve seen come from camp sites
1 Oval Georgia
2 oval Mississippi
3 oval and two piece Virginia
4 Oval Alabama
5 two piece Georgia
6 square NC
On the union side
1 SNY
2 Maryland

Others may disagree with me. But I am only going on my 60 years of relic hunting and just the ones I know about
 
What about state buckles ?

They existed, which is saying something I guess.

Most, if not all, your Southern State buckles were made up North before the war. After the war started, cheap easy to make in a hurry for a growing army was the order of the day.

Also you might want to bear in mind that there's a lot of "State Buckles" sutlers sell that either very rare back then, are attributed to the wrong State, are post-war, or famously like the oval VMI buckles, never existed.

With any part of your kit you should, but don't have to, go with with most common historically and steer clear of what is "cool" among other reenactors because its a safe bet everyone else will go after the cool stuff, like oval CS buckles, and State ones. Be a trendsetter instead of following the trend.
 
What would have been common in lees army ? I'm constantly trying to improve my impression.

There's several places to look to find good information on ANV gear. Here's a couple I know of:



 
It's always been my understanding they were rare in The ANV. I would say a "Georgia" frame buckle would be a better choice. They were extremely common and I hardly see any at events.

That would be the square/rectangle frame buckle with the two little "fangs."

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Hello everyone, I have recently gotten a repro cs oval belt plate . Since I reeanact in the east coast and portray a Virginian in the Army of Norther Virginia . I was wondering how common was the cs belt plate during the war ? Was it used by Lee's army ? Any help would be appreciated.
One thing to keep in mind is the time frame of your impression. The regulation CS oval was used in both theaters as was the CSA rectangle. When Southern troops left their respective states in the early days of the war the left with state plates and buttons but as time passed the were replace when broken or lost. As a long time relic hunter like @Woods-walker I have dug my share of CS plates but state plates are RARE. Battles like Shiloh and other early war battles have produced many state plates. There have been more AVC Alabama Volunteer Corp plates dug in VA than in Alabama.
Most, if not all, your Southern State buckles were made up North before the war
There were quite a few makers of state plates in the south. 3 in NC, 2 here in AL, 2 in TN and 2 in LA. I'm not a reenactor but I would go with a wishbone or the frame plate.
 
On state buckles - as an old relic hunter here in eastern Virginia I would list the following as the most I ve seen come from camp sites
1 Oval Georgia
2 oval Mississippi
3 oval and two piece Virginia
4 Oval Alabama
5 two piece Georgia
6 square NC
On the union side
1 SNY
2 Maryland

Others may disagree with me. But I am only going on my 60 years of relic hunting and just the ones I know about
Oh. I left off oval Ohio (OVM) as a Union. Close 2nd with Maryland
 
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