This is a very good example of the Mann’s patent 40-round infantry cartridge box, nicely marked and complete with its special magazine tin and its shoulder straps. The latter are usually broken off and missing from these boxes. The box has crisp maker and inspector markings on the flap. These include the characteristic “US” in an oval, whose border contains the Gaylord maker and Mann patent information, and at lower right is the equally sharp oval Ordnance Sub-Inspector’s stamp of A.D. Laidley, who inspected work done by Emerson Gaylord. Gaylord was a prominent supplier of leather gear to the military and the major contractor for manufacture of Mann’s accoutrements, supplying some 37,000 infantry sets to the government on contracts from July 1864 to January 1865. This is likely from Gaylord’s 1864 contracts since the inspection of the last 5,000 in 1865 was done at Springfield Armory.

Mann’s system was meant to balance and more evenly distribute the weight of the accoutrements, transferring it from the waist to the shoulders, and balancing it front and back. He developed different sets of gear for cavalry and infantry. The infantry set placed the cartridge box covering the soldier’s belly and supported by two shoulder straps riveted to its back and running over each shoulder to pass through the upper D-rings on the rear of a special waist belt, with the straps then adjusting for length by hooking back on themselves. At the same time, the waistbelt held the cartridge box close to the body by passing through loops on the back of the cartridge box formed by the shoulder strap. The doubled-wire brass hooks on these straps, which are situated about chest height were intended to help counterbalance the weight of the cartridge box by engaging short shoulder straps on Mann’s patent knapsack (which also had hooks and straps to engage the lower D-rings on the rear of the waistbelt.) The bayonet and cap box were carried as normal on the waistbelt, though Mann did experiment with using a steel scabbard with swivel for the bayonet, and also with some 60-round cartridge boxes.

This has all straps and fittings in place. The shoulder straps are full length and include the flat brass adjusting hooks on their ends and the wire knapsack strap hooks in the lower middle. The straps are still firmly in place, showing some oxidation toward brown, with  some flexing and wrinkling at points of bending (and should not be bent too sharply) with some rubs and small areas of finish loss. The box has strong color, crisp stamping and good finish, with latch tab and finial in place, side ears in place correctly sewn to the single flap (the pattern does not use an inner flap,) with the implement pouch in place on the front of the body, with its own flap, latch tab and retaining loop. The Mann’s style magazine tin is also present. This holds the standard forty rounds of cartridges in two tiers, but is arranged with the bottom section able to slide upwards in the upper section, able to be raised by a finger ring when the cartridges in the upper tier are expended, so the soldier does not have to take the time to pull out the tins to access cartridge packs in a lower section.

Infantry units known to have been issued Mann’s accoutrements include the 15^th New Jersey, 4^th Maine, 2^nd New Jersey and a unit or units in the Veteran Reserve Corps. (See our other offerings for a partial set identified to a soldier with service in the VRC.) The 15^th wore them in action at the Wilderness and Spottsylvania, regarded them favorably, with the regimental commander noting that other troops in the division had thrown away their old gear to use Mann’s sets picked up from the dead and wounded. The 4^th Maine were less impressed, in part because much of the loading and firing in battle was done lying down, which put the cartridge box in the way, although the sliding magazine tin was thought a good idea.  [sr][ph:L]

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