Buckles & Plates

 

Gorgeous & Rare Small-Sized (Pre-War) OVM Oval Buckle -- From the Vicksburg Campaign

I've only seen a few of these OVM's from the Vicksburg Campaign, and they are rare and desirable enough to be found from anywhere.  It is one of the few Union plates as rare as any Confederate plate, and also reflected in their very high dollar value.  This one has a beautiful chocolate-brown facial patina--the kind you always want to see on a dug plate!  With very little ground action from being an early find, the "OVM" (Ohio Volunteer Militia) letters stand-out literally across the room.  The plate has the most minor hairline freeze-crack or two, and small thin spots around a few parts of the edge, but as you can see in the photo's, it doesn't detract from the natural beauty and display of the piece at all, and is completely stable and "solid".  One arrow hook remains solidly intact--the other broke-off, and is clearly the reason why this little plate was discarded by the soldier.  We find a few of these OVM's and Ohio State Seal Breastplates scattered about the Vicksburg Campaign from the many Buckeyes who marched, bled, and camped all over.  This one is about as pretty as any I've seen from this area. 

$1098

       

Click On Thumbnails Below For More Pictures

 


Freshly-Dug CS "Egg Oval" Complete Belt Buckle

Dug by Tommy Philpot Within General Patrick Cleburne's Position in Liberty Gap, TN

 

It's dug pieces like this that give us relic hunters HOPE!  This little gem has was found a couple of months ago within one of those "old hunted-out spots" at Liberty Gap, Tennessee, by Tommy Philpot.  Best of all, it can be exclusively ID'ed to the infamous fighting men within the Division of General Patrick Cleburne--the "Stonewall of the West"!  Cleburne and his stalwart men had to single-handedly defend against the overwhelming Federal forces massed against them at Liberty Gap on June 24th, 1863, when US General Thomas's army was attempting to find a passage through the rocky and steep hills of the Cumberland region, and force CS General Bragg's Army of Tennessee to retreat toward Chattanooga, or better yet, outflank him and capture Chattanooga itself.  There was one problem...Patrick Cleburne and his men were guarding Liberty Gap.  Though the butternut warriors valiantly held their ground with stolid determination, and did not break from the frontal assault, they were soon outflanked, and faced either retreat or capture. General Cleburne was quickly recognized by his peers and his superiors for his outstanding tactical skill, leadership, and fighting spirit, starting all the way back to the stunning victory he singularly achieved at the Battle of Richmond, Kentucky a year earlier.  And neither the Battle of Richmond nor here at Liberty Gap would be the first times that Cleburne would command a Division alone and fend-off Union onslaughts.  He would later in 1863 achieve his greatest field accolades by staving-off the Federal pursuit at the Battle of Ringgold Gap, Georgia, saving Bragg's entire Army of Tennessee after the debacle of the Battle of Mission Ridge.  During the winter of 1863/1864, when CS General Joseph E. Johnston replaced the failing Bragg as commander of the Army of Tennessee, Johnston reorganized the army within their winter camps.  Amongst his plans to reorganize and revitalize the Army, he directed that all previous individual Confederate unit and/or national flags be replaced with a "standard" size and design rectangular flag with the St. Andrew's Cross (aka "battleflag").  However, given the fighting élan and esprit-de-corps that Cleburne and his men had displayed time and time again--and with their near-mutiny of having to replace their infamous "full-moon" flags that each regiment in his Division flew (a round white "moon" in a field of blue background)--General Johnston allowed by special decree that Cleburne's men may keep and fly their distinctive unit flags.  Now THAT is RESPECT.  Yankee's would comment on how they knew they were "in for it" when they saw they were facing the men with the "full-moon flags"!

 

This plate has a nice fresh-dug patina, with the "CS" letters showing very well, given the fact that so many specimens were softly stamped to begin with.  The plate is complete, and there is no missing brass to the face whatsoever, and no cracking.  When found, a tiny area of the edge was bent upward, but it has been professionally nudged back by Robert McDaniel (it's the edge to the left of the "C").  As expected with such recent finds in that highly mineralized soil, the iron telegraph hooks have been professionally restored by McDaniel, so that they look as good as the specimens dug 40 years ago.  You will not dig one today with the thin iron telegraph hooks solid and complete.  Time, mineralization, acid rain, etc, are all slowly destroying the delicate artifacts in the ground.
If you'd love to own a nice dug CS belt buckle that is truly a historic piece, ID'ed to the relic hunter, the location, and most of all, the infamous Cleburne Division, then you'll love this one at this price.  A pristine example dug 40 years ago will cost you around $3000.  You get all the history, beauty, and those rare and magical "CS" letters on this beauty for a lot less...
 

HOLD

       

The "Stonewall of the West"...riding to his fateful end--and his iconic reverence among Southerners--at the Battle of Franklin (Don Troiani Print)

 

Click On Thumbnails Below For More Pictures


Non-Excavated British-Style "Snake" Brass Belt Buckle

Classic Style of the Civil War-Era Imported Buckles from Britain

The south imported as many items into their war effort, from cannon to cartridges, rifles to powder, bullets to belts.  Among the plates imported from Britain were their classic "snake" belt buckle, referred to as such because of the "S"-shaped animal used as the loop connectors of the two belt loops.  Some styles were indeed true "snakes," while others were snakes with duck-heads (like this one), and variants of multiple styles and types.  The British military used them, as well as private British makers made them for retail.  Then, within the South, there were local makers of these "snake" buckles to boot.  A lot of "snakes" around!  It is also very true that this British "snake" buckle style continued to be made and utilized throughout her majesty's empire/colonies for many decades after the war.  Sadly, many "snake" buckles are being passed for "Civil War," though many were made long afterward.  And with so many variations known to exist from the War, it is hard just to determine whether a plate is "period" or not by the size or style alone.  Dug specimens are nice, since they tell you it was found within a camp or battle.  But non-dug ones abound from many places.  This one measures 45mm by 72mm--which is the size of the snake buckle in Mullinax's CS Belt Buckle book, Plate 206 (though a different style).  What is nice is that regardless, they are an affordable option for collector's to exemplify one of the South's well-used plates.  This one offered here is complete and undamaged, and has a fantastic brass patina.  It comes from my good friend Dave Callaway, who had this plate since his first years as a collector in the 1950's, and bought here locally in Mississippi, as he can attest to--so we know it's not a "reproduction"--it is an original.  Whether a true Civil War piece, most we will never truly know.  But a great original British-style "snake" buckle it is, regardless.

$350

Click On Thumbnails Below For Close-Ups



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