Figure 215
There were City Guards in Charleston, South Carolina, New York City, Philadelphia, and possibly in other places. Thus it is impossible to determine just which of these units wore this cast-brass plate. The ornamented outer oval is typical of the 1840's.
WAIST-BELT PLATE, NATIONAL GUARD, C. 1850
USNM 60206-M. Figure 216.
Figure 216
A number of Militia units carried the designation "National Guard." The unit that used this particular plate was from New Jersey, for scratched on the reverse is "Sergeant O. Clinton, October 9th, 1851, 1st Reg Hudson Brigade, NJSM"; However, the adjutant general, State of New Jersey, was unable to give any information on such an organization. The specimen is cut from rolled brass with sunken letters filled with black enamel.
¶ Shoulder-belt plates underwent the same transition as cap plates did beginning about 1837-1838, with the single die strike plate yielding to the composite plate, and applied devices being attached to oval, rectangular, or rectangular "clipped corner" plates. While some single die plates were made and worn after 1840, no composite types that predate 1835 are known. The following group of shoulder-belt plates are typical of those that first appeared about 1840. Of these, several continued unchanged through the Civil War and into the 1870's and 1880's.