GEORGIA CARTRIDGE BOX PLATE FROM SPOTTSYLVANIA COUNTY WITH CARVED DESIGNS ON THE REVERSE

$4,750.00 ON HOLD

Quantity Available: 1

Item Code: 1262-03

A scarce Georgia state seal cartridge box plate with a pleasing patina found November 25, 1975, in Spotsylvania County. These followed the US 1839 pattern that was both ornamental and served to keep the cartridge box flap down if left unlatched, but substituted the state seal for a raised “U.S.” in the lead-solder filled stamped brass exterior shell. This has no dings or dents, an excellent rim and very good detail, with some grayish brown showing in places around the rim, but a pleasant medium brown patina over most of the center. A stippled band runs between the rim and a raised inner oval border inside which a soldier with shouldered musket stands guard between the columns of a temple portico with an arch overhead reading “Constitution” and a rocky landscape visible behind. (In this version of the state seal the banners with mottoes wrapped around the columns are omitted, likely because the size would have made the words illegible) The lead solder fill is in place on the reverse, showing a largely smooth gray surface with some small white and larger brown areas. One of iron wire loops is intact, the other has rusted away.

Under Governor Brown preparations for secession and the buildup of Georgia’s military forces began months before the firing on Fort Sumter with the appropriation of million dollars for state defense in late 1860 and large purchases of arms and equipment. Much of this came from northern suppliers, including Emerson Gaylord of Chicopee, Mass., who sold accouterments to several southern states, and sets of infantry gear to Georgia that included waistbelt plates and oval cartridge box plates bearing the state seal like this one. See Mullinax (1991) Fig. 220 for a comparable example.

This one was personalized by the soldier with some carving in the soft back of the plate. Incidental dings and scratches are sometimes difficult to sort out from the intentional, and it can become a Rorschach test of sorts, but it looks there are two squares, one of which has an X in it looking rather like he was thinking of the classic ANV battleflag.

These were worn by Georgia militia before the war and by Georgia volunteers throughout the conflict. Georgia was one of the original seven states forming the Confederacy, with whose central government Governor Brown had a contentious relationship to say the least, but the state supplied something like 120,000 troops to the cause, and paid the price in an estimated 11,000 to 25,000 lives lost and hundreds of engagements fought on its soil. This would make a strong addition to a Confederate infantry display or a collection focused specifically on Georgia. [sr][ph:L]

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