One of the most distinctive Confederate belt buckles is the forked-tongue or wishbone frame style, so named from the shape of the movable tongue mounted on the center bar. The buckle is simple, practical, light weight, and robust. It would be fitted with a plain leather belt sewn around the center bar and pierced with two rows of holes that would lessen the stress on a belt weighted by a cap box, bayonet (perhaps,) and possibly a cartridge box. These were easily made with both frame and tongue made of sand cast brass, requiring just a little more labor than the fixed tongue varieties and, like them, were widely produced in a variety of sizes.

This one was recovered in Tennessee and is in excellent excavated condition with no breaks, bends or distortion. The metal is smooth, light brown in color with some grayish white residue showing more on the back than the face. The bars of the frame are fairly narrow and are very well finished with good exterior and interior corners. The raised, round center bar has nicely beveled ends and the tongue has a flat lower surface with the upper surface of the forks of the tongue rounded, beveled and given round tips.

This is a classic Confederate belt buckle in really great shape and a form that shows up in period photos of Confederate soldiers who managed to get their photographs taken with their gear on. See Mullinax and Keim for parallel examples.    [sr][ph:L]

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