affixed to the front. It is attached on the right side 

 by a rectangular belt attachment with a flat hook on 

 the left rear. 



^ The 1832 regulations specified for engineer officers 

 a waist-belt plate to be "gilt, eliptical, two inches in 

 the shortest diameter, bearing the device of the 

 button." Such a plate (fig. 73) is in the collections of 

 the Valley Forge Chapel Museum. It is entirely 

 possible that this plate is even earlier than 1832, for 

 the 1821 and 1825 regulations state that the engineer 

 buttons were to contain '"the device and motto hereto- 

 fore established." 



^^^mi^mm 



Figure 73 



In the collections of the West Point Museum is a 

 button, carrying the "Essayons" device, that was 

 excavated in the area behind the "Long Barracks," 

 which burned in 1825. Another such button ex- 

 cavated at Sackets Harbor on the site of an 181 2-1 8 1 5 

 barracks bears a maker's name (Wishart) of the 

 1812-1816 period. 



WAIST-BELT PLATE, GENERAL AND STAFF OFFICERS, 

 1832 (?) -1850 



USNM 604145-M (S-K 30i). Figure 74. 



This buckle is similar to the one (shown in fig. 73) 

 that belonged to Capt. Charles O. Collins, but it is 

 different in that the letters "u.s." are enclosed not by 

 a laurel wreath but by a sprig of laurel on the right 

 side and a sprig of palm on the left. The 1841 uniform 

 regulations specified such a belt plate for officers of 

 the Corps of Engineers, but with a "turreted castle, 

 raised in silver" rather than the letters "u.s." This 



Figure 74. — .Specimen in \'alley Forge Chapel 

 Museum, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. 



places the proljable date of manufacture of this 

 specimen in the 1840's. 



COAT-SKIRT ORNAMENT, GENERAL STAFF, 1832 



USNM 8040. Figure 75. 



This skirt ornament, on buff^ cloth, is from a coat 

 worn by Capt. Thomas Swords when he was assistant 

 quartermaster general in 1838. The design consists 

 of three 6-pointed stars of gold bullion cord: a line 



Figure 75 



40 



