Lost buckles, breast plates.

[Russell]

I enjoy seeing the photos of buckles and plates that are found relic hunting and always wonder how they were lost. Did they take off their belts and get side tracked and forgot them, did the belt break and was tossed aside. It seems something as useful as a buckle would be needed and not easily replaced. I know of an area close to Kennesaw Mountain where three buckles were found close together or within 100 square feet of each other. The possibilities are endless, this is just something that has always intrigued me.

 

[Joe Whitworth]

I believe most were tossed aside when the leather broke, at least Yankee stuff and found in campsites. Battlefield find would indicate removal to treat a wound or left behind when removing a body. The South didn't have much in the way of replacements for lost or broken equipment like the North. The only Confederate plate I ever found was in a Yankee trash pile. Always figured it was battlefield souvenir discarded by a Yankee either tired of lugging around or haunted by the face of the dead Virginian he took it from. Gotta wonder....

 

[R. Porter]

I remember reading in one book on relic collections that there was one case where a number of eagle cross belt plates were found in a Confederate camp (like about 30 in the same area). That was taken as an example of something that occasionally appeared in the historic record where a Confederate unit captured Union equipment. The Confederates kept what they could use and discarded the rest.

 

[Salterr]

I aways think about this very thing, but my favorite thing to think about is when you find the plate. You're standing exactly where he lost it or discarded it 160 years ago and it's just been there waiting for you to find it.

 

[Reconstructed Rebel]

I remember reading in one book on relic collections that there was one case where a number of eagle cross belt plates were found in a Confederate camp (like about 30 in the same area). That was taken as an example of something that occasionally appeared in the historic record where a Confederate unit captured Union equipment. The Confederates kept what they could use and discarded the rest.

I have an Eagle Breast Plate story involving the camping site of a Union regiment (I think Ohio?) outside of Lebanon Kentucky, just prior to the battle. The unit was new and word spread around that the shiny round breast plates were perfect targets for Rebels wanting to shoot Yankees through the heart. A large number of the new recruits abandoned the Eagle plates on the site before they marched toward Perryville.

This story was relayed to me by someone who claimed to know a relic hunter who found many, many plates in what was at the time a large grove of beech trees where the Federals were known to have spent the night.

 

[Trooper "D"]

I believe most were tossed aside when the leather broke, at least Yankee stuff and found in campsites. Battlefield find would indicate removal to treat a wound or left behind when removing a body. The South didn't have much in the way of replacements for lost or broken equipment like the North. The only Confederate plate I ever found was in a Yankee trash pile. Always figured it was battlefield souvenir discarded by a Yankee either tired of lugging around or haunted by the face of the dead Virginian he took it from. Gotta wonder....

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Nice belt plate. Is this the type with a receiver of brass on the other end of the belt or does it have a hook for belt holes?

 

[Ethan S.]

I have no idea. I found a sword belt plate sandwiched between two bricks in the ruins of a house that burned down during the war. Who knows how it got there.

 

[Joe Whitworth]

Nice belt plate. Is this the type with a receiver of brass on the other end of the belt or does it have a hook for belt holes?

They had a brass keeper fitted and numbered to the plate on the other end of the belt. I searched the area well but never found the keeper or any other parts of the belt rig reinforcing my discarded souvenir theory. Unlikely as it seems after that picture was taken my brother Steve gave me a numbered keeper he dug at Fox's Gap battle site, #886, my plate's #885 and the keeper's a perfect fit.