Field used US cartridge box sling recovered here at Gettysburg and once in the Shields Museum, which opened here in town in 1925 displaying relics picked up the battlefield and was in business until 1985, when the Park Service purchased the land, and the contents, a few pieces of which had been sold privately over the years,  were auctioned. This is a good example of the regulation shoulder sling for the infantry cartridge box, flexible, showing some rubbing and abrasions from issue, wear and field use, but good color and surface overall, retaining the impression of the regulation round eagle breast plate worn on these.

The sling is full length, missing just the tip of one billet, broken across the very last fastening hole, and showing an oval maker’s mark near one end. The lower portion of the maker’s mark is a little unclear from the crazing of the finish at the lower right and bottom edge, but clearly shows, “MANUFACTURED BY / JE CONDICT / 57 WHITE “at the top and middle, marking it as product of Jennings E. Condict of New York City and Newark, NJ, a prewar saddle maker with major wartime contracts on his own and with SH Condict and other business partners for leather gear and accoutrements. Johnson, Civil War Cartridge Boxes, notes he had contract orders 10,000 .58 caliber and 10,000 .69 caliber cartridge boxes of the 1861 pattern deliverable to the New York Arsenal under the July 12, 1862, advertisement for cartridge boxes. Bazelon notes one of his business addresses as 55 and 57 White St. in New York City.

This is a nice example of a real issued and field-used cartridge box sling with good provenance that would give it a place in a Gettysburg collection as well as an  infantry display. We note the sling also shows a large “127” stenciled in black ink, likely the “rack number” of the soldier to whom it was issued, a number assigned to him within the company to keep track of issue gear.  [SR][ph:L]

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