Union officer's belt buckle
Northeastern United States
1851-1863
Measurements
3-1/2 in x 2 in x 3/8 in
Materials
Brass
Credit Line
Historic Odessa Foundation, The David Wilson Mansion, Inc.
Accession Number
2013.8
Inscription
"Belt buckle of / Union Soldier / laid in field of / Gettysburg from / 1860 to 1898" is written in script on a label, now detached.
Condition Notes
The right-side loop bar is an addition. See "Comments" below for more information.
Provenance
Ex coll. Mrs. E. Tatnall (Mary Corbit) Warner
Comments
The rectangular buckle for a sword belt is of a design known as the 1851 Pattern Officer’s Belt Plate. It was intended to secure a leather belt to which a sword was attached. The cast buckle (i.e., plate) has an American eagle seal on the front with "E PLURIBUS UNUM" in a banner above and with talons clutching the requisite laurel branch and arrows. Most of the laurel branches created in a second casting below and to the sides of the eagle have come off and are lost.
Of interest, Mrs. Warner almost certainly was the one who altered the buckle to allow it to be used with a modern sash. She had a new rectangular loop added to the right side, and she had the tab-like prong (that hooked the buckle to the leather belt) on the back removed. Mrs. Warner also used the date of 1860 for the Battle of Gettysburg, rather than 1863.
