This sheet brass belt plate is in great condition, was excavated from an 1863-64 Confederate winter camp in Orange, Virginia, and is published as Figure 85 in Lon Keim’s Confederate General Service Accoutrement Plates on page 71. Rectangular sheet brass belt plates of Confederate wartime manufacture are sometimes difficult to separate from prewar militia plates, many of which also ended up worn by Confederate troops, but the methods of attachment often tell the story. In this case the maker used a belt hook with single arrow stud removed from a small size M1839 oval US belt plate, gaining a much more robust fastener than the simple wire hooks found on some of these and still avoiding display of a US emblem. This has good edges, no bends, cracks or breaks, and a pretty uniform olive-green and grayish-brown patina front and back, and just a couple of light scratches that serve to identify it as the very plate illustrated by Keim. As he remarks, plain brass rectangular belt plates saw widespread use by Confederates in all theatres of the war.  [sr] [ph:L]

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