any civil war buffs out there? I need a little help

montanagold · Mar 7, 2010

Found this today, not sure if it is civil war but the eagle looks old. it is brass or copper and seems to be filled on the back with cement or lead. Any info would help thanks. Its about 3 inches round.

Kieth-Tx · Mar 7, 2010

Union Breast Plate

{Sentinel} · Mar 7, 2010

Been studying the Civil War for 25 years and digging relics for near as long and that's a nice Eagle Breast plate. Nice find :icon_thumleft:

What you see on the reverse is the iron wire that would form the loops that attached to the belt and its rusting through the lead. Many times it will start to wear through the brass front as well. All in all a nicely preserved plate :icon_thumleft:

vayank54 · Mar 7, 2010

Saw this in What is it and left this comment on that post

It's a civil war period breast plate used by the US. It went on the cross belt for the cartridge box. It is lead filled and had 2 iron loops that went through the cross belt. A strip of leather went through the loops on the breast plate to hold it onto the belt. A nice find. Worth about $70 to $90 in that shape

time4me · Mar 7, 2010

Man, that is one SWEET Civil War eagle breast plate! Congrats :headbang:

Jim

kuger · Mar 7, 2010

Did you find that in Montana!?

montanagold · Mar 8, 2010

Thanks guys, That makes me very excited. We don't find civil war stuff here often.

Kieth-Tx · Mar 8, 2010

vayank54 said:
Saw this in What is it and left this comment on that post

It's a civil war period breast plate used by the US. It went on the cross belt for the cartridge box. It is lead filled and had 2 iron loops that went through the cross belt. A strip of leather went through the loops on the breast plate to hold it onto the belt. A nice find. Worth about $70 to $90 in that shape

I believe the same face was used on the cartridge box...but it had hooks to connect into the leather as opposed to this one Where Sentinel points out that you can see where the wire was attached to run the belt through. I read somewhere that the reason so many of the breastplatest are found is that the Union soldiers found out that the Confederate soldiers were using them as a target. Nice find!