_USNM 60318-M (S-K 74). Figure 138._
[Illustration: FIGURE 138]
This crescent-shaped, silver-on-copper plate bears an eagle that is
very similar in design to the one adopted by the Regular Army in 1821.
Sometimes mistakenly identified as a gorget because of its shape, the
crescent form of the specimen is an old South Carolina State heraldic
device. A cap worn by the Charleston Light Dragoons after the Civil
War, and probably before, carries a similar crescent-shaped plate,
with the familiar palmetto tree device substituted for the eagle.[112]
The design of the eagle, however, places this piece in the 1835-1850
period. A silvered ornament, it may have been made originally for
either infantry or dragoons, and must be considered a manufacturer's
stock pattern.
[Footnote 112: Illustrated in _Military Collector and Historian_
(1951), vol. 3, no. 3, p. 59.]