confederate blanket buckle,/ also solid bronze buckle.?

eboy1960

eboy1960

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Mar 2, 2009
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indianapolis indiana
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garrett at pro/teknetics 6000

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Upvote 1
Hate to burst your bubble but you have read some of the much ill-info out there....your blanket buckle is actually a harness buckle cover,and had nothing to do with the Confederacy.....they date to the 1890's.Your other Buckle is a Conway....used on harness as well....to this day
 

What are you calling a confederate blaket buckle?
 

Somebody has been pulling your leg
 

I actually thought the were used from the 1860's to 1890's. they weren't army issued but officers could buy them. I have some rosettes that are hearts and also found several of those in a area I hunt that has no modern trash or anything newer than 1860's. it's way way out in the sticks in basically no mans land. Have had several people "archy's" also verify this from collections dug at very well known battlefields across Arkansas.
 

I will some of the board experts confirm,but as far as I am aware there is no battlefield data to support that info you state.I do know they were never used on blanket rolls
 

I'm not being a jerk here but I have actually seen photos at the university of them being used as horse equipment in the civil war. Kuger no one can positively say that something was not used in the civil war as neither of us were there or know what all was available. From what I have seen from archy's collections dug at several civil war battlefields and my own personal digs plus all the other folks on the net that has found these in civil war sites it is unreasonable to say never used.
 

j311
Private
Member Since:
Feb 18, 2012
Message Count:
64
found it gandy

"Civil War horse's heart-shaped harness buckle shield According to Howard R. Crouch's Horse Equipment of the Civil War Era, page 168, these items protected the hair of the horse's tail from being pulled out on the buckle tongues. The heart motif was very popular. This piece is just over 2-1/4 inches long and a unique piece of the past."
j311, May 16, 2012 #6
 

eboy1960 why don't you PM TheCannonBallGuy. He is among the most knowledgeable persons out there on Civil War Relics. Not to say he would know for sure but may be able to confirm if you are correct about it being CW. Just a suggestion to confirm your find. Best of luck.:dontknow:
 

Not being a Jerk either,you are right its hard to say "never",just going from data gathered.I do realize they are listed in several noted books....of which I have found quite few items in mis represented....ut I am always willing to admit if I am wrong

This was posted here by PBK,who the long timers on here all respected highly as a real authority as well.................
Although it's often listed as a horse harness buckle, this heart-embossed item is really a buckle shield, made to fit on top of the actual buckle. Supposedly, the shield would keep the buckle from snagging, but it also served an ornamental purpose. The same design has been around since the 19th century, and in fact it's still being made today.

This item is sometimes misidentified as a "Confederate blanket roll buckle," an unfortunate attribution which found its way into print into an early edition Dr. Francis A. Lord's Civil War Collector's Encyclopedia, and into a later edition which reproduced the original pages without corrections. However, it was acknowledged in Vol. V, which was first published 'way back in 1989. Quoting from p. iv of Vol. V:

"Additions and Corrections to Volume IV, Civil War Collector's Encyclopedia.

"Page 27. Mr. Durham [Roger S. Durham, then curator of Fort Bliss Museum, Texas] identifies these blanket roll buckles as hardware from horse harness. He is very probably correct."

This mistaken ID was also debunked by Charles S. Harris, the author of Civil War Relics of the Western Campaigns, in an article titled "Hearts in Harness" in North South Trader's Civil War magazine, Vol. XXIV, #6 (Dec. 1997), p. 62-63, which was accompanied by several photographs showing identical buckle shields or covers in place on harness straps.
 

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I'm not saying blanket strap buckles I know they are for the horse harness to keep the limbs and brush from snagging them. I really just think it quite odd the large amount of people that find these in all parts of the us where confederate and union armies set foot on. I swear I could take anyone here to a place that has not yielded any artifacts older than 1860's and I've found 4 in the same area as I found curry combs and rosettes also in one particular hole I found a Calvary button that had made a darker copper patina mark on one of the hearts. I'll post pics tomorrow. But kuger we both know that these people who write these books are not always represented by saying things as fact. Some are very misleading. But judging by the fact that so many people have found these at civil war sites it just to hard to say they don't belong.
 

Should I say newer artifacts. Haha sorry
 

civil_war22 said:
Should I say newer artifacts. Haha sorry
Click to expand...

Sorry, that doesn't mean much, I found a 1780s Seal on a Roman Site, when all I normally get is Roman.

You can't say that every CW site these are found on had no later foot-fall or horse traffic, that would seem unbelievable to me, however remote.
 

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I found one at the end of last year. Mine was all complete with the brass loop still on it. I found it just outside martinsburg, wv at an old farm which is now a park. I to thought it was confederate, so i'll be watching to see what the final say is on it. Im hoping it turns out to be confederate, its the only confederate relic i have (besides bullets and flat buttons).
 

Regardless of how it turns out nice finds :icon_thumleft:
 

The question's already been answered, bu figured I'd just add additional agreement, yes, it's horse tack...it was misidentified in a relic book years ago, and continued to be misidentified since. Still a cool find though.

Greg
 

These are like a harmonica reed. Found in camps but also found in house sites. I have found dozens of harness buckle shields in mid-19th c house sites in KY and Indiana, most of which I found not a single CW relic on.

Looks good in a display case with camp items, if found at a camp. If found at a house site, no way to know--and therefore "civilian."

Regards,

Buck
 

Listen to Kuger he won't steer you wrong . If those are Confederate blanket roll buckles than an awful lot of confederate soldiers retired to Maine after the war:laughing7: . I have found several here. Some of them have been removed from their blankets and used to cover buckles on harnesses for decoration and to keep horse hair from getting tangled in the buckles . Those retired confederate soldiers that resettled in Maine were very clever. Mainereilc
 

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