Oval shoulder-belt plates were worn by American officers during the
War of the Revolution, but no extant specimens are known. Highly
ornamented or engraved officers' plates for the period after 1790 are
in several collections (fig. 53) and others are illustrated in
contemporary portraits (fig. 54). Just what year shoulder-belt plates
were issued to enlisted personnel is unknown, but their use appears to
have been well established by 1812. The uniform regulations for that
year specified swords for sergeants of infantry to be "worn with a
white cross belt 3-1/2 inches wide," but nothing was said about a
device on the belt.[84]
[Footnote 84: General Order, Southern Department U.S. Army, January
24, 1813 (photostatic copy in files of division of military history,
Smithsonian Institution).]
[Illustration: FIGURE 53.--Specimen in Campbell collection.]
Normally, brass or "yellow metal" plates were authorized for the
artillery and silvered or "white metal" for the infantry and dragoons,
as consonant with the rest of their trimmings. In actuality, however,
white-metal shoulder-belt plates do not seem to have been issued to
the infantry prior to 1814, and brass ones were still being issued in
1815.[85] Most of these plates were plain oval, although a few are
known that were struck with devices similar to those on cap plates;
and at least one rectangular cap plate, fitted with the two studs and
hook on the reverse normal to shoulder-belt plates, has been found. It
seems probable that these were officers' plates. Oval brass plates
have been found that are identical in size and construction to the
plain ones but with the letters "U.S." embossed on them; however,
these are difficult to date.
[Footnote 85: Letters from Irvine in Records AGO: To Colonel Bogardus
(Commanding Officer, 41st Infantry), February 16, 1814; to James
Calhoun, January 14, 1815; and to General Scott, January 31, 1815.]
[Illustration: FIGURE 54.--Portrait in collection of The Filson Club,
Louisville, Kentucky.]
It is extremely doubtful that waist-belt plates were issued to
enlisted personnel of foot units during this period. In 1808 enlisted
dragoons were authorized a waist-belt plate of tinned brass and, as
far as known, perfectly plain.[86]
[Footnote 86: Letter to the Purveyor of Public Supplies in 1808.]
The 1812 regulations prescribed for the light dragoons a "buff leather
waist belt, white plate in front with eagle in relief," and there is
the possibility that the light artillery had such. In actuality, there
was no call for a waist belt where a shoulder belt was authorized.
Neither civilian trousers nor the few surviving military "pantaloons"
of the period are fitted with belt loops, trousers being held up
either by suspenders or by being buttoned directly to the shirt or
waistcoat. No example of the dragoon plate has been found. However, a
rather tantalizing possibility exists--a fragment of a pewter belt
plate (fig. 55) was excavated at Sackets Harbor, New York, where the
light dragoons are known to have served. The 1816 regulations
specified for artillerymen "waist belts of white leather two inches
wide, yellow oval plate of the same width." It is not made clear,
however, whether this belt and plate was for officers only or for all
ranks. The unusually striking oval specimen (fig. 56) may be this
plate, but its ornateness indicates that this particular design was
for officers only.
[Illustration: FIGURE 55.--Specimen in Campbell collection.]
[Illustration: FIGURE 56.--Specimen in Campbell collection.]