_USNM 664. Figure 72._
[Illustration: FIGURE 72]
The plate and the belt to which it is attached formerly belonged to
Capt. Charles O. Collins, an 1824 graduate of the Military Academy.
The belt is of patent leather, as specified for undress wear, and is
1-1/2 inches wide. The plate is cast in brass and has raised edges.
Rather than having "a sprig of laurel on each side," it has a wreath
of laurel enclosing the letters "U S," in Old English, in silvered
metal affixed to the front. It is attached on the right side by a
rectangular belt attachment with a flat hook on the left rear.
¶ The 1832 regulations specified for engineer officers a waist-belt
plate to be "gilt, elliptical, two inches in the shortest diameter,
bearing the device of the button." Such a plate (fig. 73) is in the
collections of the Valley Forge Chapel Museum. It is entirely possible
that this plate is even earlier than 1832, for the 1821 and 1825
regulations state that the engineer buttons were to contain "the
device and motto heretofore established."
[Illustration: FIGURE 73]
In the collections of the West Point Museum is a button, carrying the
"Essayons" device, that was excavated in the area behind the "Long
Barracks," which burned in 1825. Another such button excavated at
Sackets Harbor on the site of an 1812-1815 barracks bears a maker's
name (Wishart) of the 1812-1816 period.