Brass heel plate history???

vayank54

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Oct 11, 2009
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Northern VA
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I've seen a lot of interest on the history of the brass heel plates with the heart design. I dug one recently that measured 1-1/2" by 1-1/2" A fellow sent me several emails about them. the first I must have deleted but He said that a friend of his collected them and an elderly lady who had been in the "business" saw them and wanted to buy them he wouldn't sell them but she told him about them. I've copied the other two emails
Email 1
The size of the heel will give you an idea when the plate was made as fashion changes, so does heel size. But these heels are designed with a slight taper on the edge of the heart so dirt won't collect as easy, leaving little "Hearts of Sand" (That was the name of a paper I did on early Prostitution in America). Most people from the area knew where the bawdy houses were, but for the new to town, it was still rude to walk up to a woman and proposition her, plus you could get arrested for the act, so, if an attractive Woman crosses the street, you would look for her "Calling Card" in the dirt
By the looks of this one, it was never used, which got me to thinking that a Blacksmith may be close by as they were commissioned for the task of making the plates.

Email 2
You will see the heart on several Military pieces which are not Unit significant, such as the
Saddle Strap that goes around the front of a Cavalry Horse. Where the straps come together in the center there is a fist sized brass heart. However, with these "Shoe Hearts".....(Do you see where "Hearts of Sand" would work so much better?) the size dictates a Woman's foot, not a Soldier. As for soldiers wearing cleats on their shoes, "Yes, absolutely", they kept the heals from washing over, but in this incidence, the Hearts are not for anti wear purposes as much as for advertisement. What soldier is going to place a pair of these on his heels? All of the men walking behind him would be following the little hearts enroute to the Battle Field then be overwhelmed by a sudden need to compose prose..... It would ruin the whole flow of the war.

I should mention that not all the brass heel plates are civil war some are later. The one I dug dates from the late 1860's to early 1870s's
 

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I was wondering about them thanks for the info. :icon_thumleft:
 

Pretty interesting history there....Thanks !......If this were true today......my town would have little hearts stomped in the dirt all over town. :D
 

kieser sousa/rip said:
Pretty interesting history there....Thanks !......If this were true today......my town would have little hearts stomped in the dirt all over town. :D
And just where do you live? I might have to come up for a visit. :tongue3:
 

The only plates I have are horseshoe shaped for the boots.
 

Thanks for posting vayank54 :icon_thumright:

I've read/heard a different version of the signal function of the boot heel plates. During the CW the Confederate Cavalry used the heel plate design to communicate with other troops or between smaller groups of horse soldiers. Once the soldiers unmounted their horses near water the heel plates would leave an imprint in the mud. When other soldiers later came to same area they could tell whether friend or foe. The cavalry plate is smaller than other CW heel plates due fact it had a signal function rather than protection of the heel (cavalry boots wouldn't see as much wear compared a foot soldier and no need for added weight). The plates were not military issued and various designs/metals were used. Heart was the most common, but also clover and star were used. The heart heel plate I found is different from the one vayank54 found. Would anyone happen to know whether that also would be a lady of the night heel plate :D
 

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Hmmm A horse of the night maybe :icon_scratch: I've never seen one like your's before. I had never heard about the cavalry using them like that and that explanation could fit in with where I dug mine. I think mine was to small to be a man's though.
 

What did the ladies of the night do on windy days or during dryspells when the heel plates wouldn't leave an imprint? Also, wouldn't it be rather risky to be wearing evidence of their activity.

Did soldiers bring heel plates with them as a memory of the ladies they left behind? Why would the soldiers make them out of lead? Some of these plates found in CW camps with no modern/civilian relics.

The size of the heel plate is not important. Don't see why it couldn't be from a cavalry boot heel plate (wouldn't need to cover entire heel).
 

IronSpike said:
What did the ladies of the night do on windy days or during dryspells when the heel plates wouldn't leave an imprint? Also, wouldn't it be rather risky to be wearing evidence of their activity.

Did soldiers bring heel plates with them as a memory of the ladies they left behind? Why would the soldiers make them out of lead? Some of these plates found in CW camps with no modern/civilian relics.

The size of the heel plate is not important. Don't see why it couldn't be from a cavalry boot heel plate (wouldn't need to cover entire heel).
I don't have answers for some of your questions. I only about the heart design from what I was told by a guy who researched it. Yes, some of them are civil war and were used by soldiers. While I have never seen a lead heel plate. I have dug several complete lead bottoms to shoes that were made by soldiers. One of these is in Stanley Phillips's book Excavated Artifacts.
 

Cool I've never seen one like that. Looks like it might be lead but kind of hard to tell
 

Bumping this back up,
Dug my first heelplate, stamped '11', too small for mens 11.
Does anyone elses example have a size stamp, or star ?
I am also wondering if the Lady of the night trail theory has any further documentation I could look at.
Thanks & Best digs. :thumbsup:
 

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Very cool! Only one I ever dug was a heart but it didn't have any numbers on it
 

Almost tossed mine , was watching the new diggers episode and ring dug one up.I ran to my truck and found it on my floor board. I had no clue what it was. Thought it was just junk. Lol
 

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