_USNM 60206-M. Figure 216._
[Illustration: FIGURE 216]
A number of Militia units carried the designation "National Guard."
The unit that used this particular plate was from New Jersey, for
scratched on the reverse is "Sergeant O. Clinton, October 9th, 1851,
1st Reg Hudson Brigade, NJSM"; However, the adjutant general, State of
New Jersey, was unable to give any information on such an
organization. The specimen is cut from rolled brass with sunken
letters filled with black enamel.
¶ Shoulder-belt plates underwent the same transition as cap plates did
beginning about 1837-1838, with the single die strike plate yielding
to the composite plate, and applied devices being attached to oval,
rectangular, or rectangular "clipped corner" plates. While some single
die plates were made and worn after 1840, no composite types that
predate 1835 are known. The following group of shoulder-belt plates
are typical of those that first appeared about 1840. Of these, several
continued unchanged through the Civil War and into the 1870's and
1880's.