Did Civil War Soldiers Have Trouble Keeping Their Pants Up?

[hombre_de_plata_flaco]

Just wondering. Seems like people dig a lot of these belt buckles. What is the reason so many CW soldiers lost their belts?

Pants too tight already? Mobile brothels in the fields? Clashed with their uniforms?

Any ideas?

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Minelab PRO-FIND 35 Waterproof Pinpointer Metal Detector for Experts with Tone ID & Adjustable Sensitivity - Grab it through Amazon!

[Lowbatts]

Not to get too much deeper in this rabbit hole, but only a wounded soldier or one who was done fighting for good would willingly lose his belt. Carrying that cartridge box, holster, scabbard, whatever else the belt was designed to do would be a lot harder without the belt. The belt is much harder to use without a buckle. And there were no shortage of NCO's and officers who demanded uniform protocols be met.

Keeping your drawers on is work for your suspenders, not your belt.

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Cry Of The Eagle: History And Legends Of The Cherokee Indians And Their Buried Treasure - Grab it through Amazon!

[Shambler]

Keeping your drawers on is work for your suspenders, not your belt.

This.

 

[JP]

Soldiers had suspenders. There wasn't a need for the extra swag. There are 3 reasons you find plates and so many in odd places


1. They were simply killed in battle or skirmishes
2. Soldiers had suspenders, and often tossed the buckles to get rid of weight or bulk.. The plates/buckles were just not needed to hold their pants up.
3. The backs of plates are filled with lead, and often times lead was needed to melt down to cast bullets. The front of the plates were then be discarded.

Reason #1 doesn't make sense to me. Were the bodies stripped of their clothing before being removed from the battlefield?

I don't believe that they took their clothing. Some soldiers that were killed in battle were buried in a shallow grave on or near the battle field. When some were later dug up to be moved to cemeteries, some of the personal affects may have been left behind. Also, I imagine there were some that sadly were not buried until later (left out in the open). There are pictures from the Civil War era where you can see skeletal remains that had been dug up by animals. I imagine the soldier had been buried with some of his gear that was scattered due to the animals. There is a picture from the Crater at Petersburg that shows a rifle and a skull still there 7 years after the war.

There was someone that posted on here a buckle that they found that the lead had been melted out of it.

I imagine that in the heat of battle some may have tossed personal belongings. I remember reading about how the people of one town went out after a battle to collect souvenirs (personal belongings of either dead soldiers or items that had been tossed).