Although from a different die, this plate, struck in thin brass, appears to be a die sample of the plate described above. It is also possible that it is a sample of the dragoon plate authorized in 1812.
¶ The 1813 uniform regulations specified for enlisted men of the artillery a "black leather cockade, with points 4 inches in diameter, a yellow button and eagle in the center, the button in uniform with the coat button."[37] This specification gives some validity to the belief that a cockade with an approximation of the artillery button tooled on it may also have been worn.
LEATHER COCKADE, ARTILLERY, C. 1808-1812
USNM 60256-M (S-K 14). Figure 3.
Figure 3
This cockade is of black leather of the size prescribed by the 1813 regulations. Tooled into the upper fan is an eagle-on-cannon device with a stack of 6 cannon balls under the trail; an arc of 15 stars partially surrounds the eagle device. It is believed to have been worn on artillery chapeaux de bras as early as 1808.
The specimen is unmarked as to maker, but from correspondence of Callendar Irvine, Commissary General of Purchases from 1812 to 1841, it seems very possible that cockades similar to this one were made by Robert Dingee of New York City. Dingee is first listed in New York directories as a "saddler" (1812); he is listed later as "city weigher" (1828) and "inspector of green hides" (1831). The eagle-on-cannon design is similar to that of several Regular artillery buttons worn between 1802 and 1821, but it most closely approximates a button Johnson assigns to the period 1794-1810.[38]
¶ The question has been raised as to whether the Regulars ever wore a cockade with such a device. The 1813 and 1814 uniform regulations merely specified black leather cockades of 4 inches and 4-1/2 inches in diameter respectively. However, since the Militia generally did not start adopting Regular Army devices until the 1820's it seems probable that this cockade was an item of Regular Army issue, despite the lack of evidence of specific authorization.