U.S. Cap Pouches

[Citizen_Soldier]

Greetings,
I've been doing some thinking about the evolution of U.S. cap pouches before and during The Rebellion and have a few questions for those who have had the opportunity to dig through U.S. Ordinance Department papers concerning the subject.

1.) How did the U.S. cap pouch evolve before and during the conflict?

2.) Was there a pattern that was more prevalent than others?

3.) Was there any variation by theater?

Please provide documentation to support your postings.

Thank you,

Darrek Orwig

[ohpkirk]

Re: U.S. Cap Pouches

Darrek,
I seem to remember Nick Duvall and Bill Lomas posting several very nice comparison photos of cap boxes in their collections or that they have taken notes on prior to the last crash. You may want to contact them to see if they, or anyone on the forum, saved the images for your own study...in case you missed it previously.

[Citizen_Soldier]

Re: U.S. Cap Pouches

Cody,
Thanks! I'll drop them an email.

Have a great Christmas,

Darrek Orwig

[David Fox]

Re: U.S. Cap Pouches

A recent "Military Collector & Historian" had an article on early war cap boxes. I believe Paul Johnson may soon publish on the subject. Personally, I've long wondered about the square (or "shield" front) box with the sewn-on closure tab, Federal issue and a chief Confederate style. In my earlies these were alleged to be Mexican War era, almost surely a canard.

[August77]

Re: U.S. Cap Pouches

Fred Gaede is putting out the cap pouch book. It will most likely be the definitive work on the subject and answer all these questions. I have my own thoughts on a time line, but anxiously await the publication of this book.

[luthhaning]

Re: U.S. Cap Pouches

Darrek,

Bill is correct that the authority on Fed cap pouches by far (that I am aware of ) is Fred Gaede. His book when published will be at least as revealing and inclusive as the one Mr. Johnson did on cartridge boxes. The evolution during the period 1850-1865 was significant and quite honestly to complicated to go into here. The Allegheny and Watervliet arsenals had there own "styles" of pouches which evolved during the period and obviously affected contract patterns as well. As for most prevalent it comes down to,as always,what time period you are shooting for. The research that Mr. Gaede has worked so long and hard to complete is matching existing marked or unmarked pouch examples with the descriptions set forth in contracts, letters and arsenal specifications in the archives. For example with a particular pouch I own it is maker marked and we were able to match it to a letter from the archives describing new specifications for that exact contract for say 10,000 pouches. That maker had a few contracts but we are relatively sure this pouch was one of those 10,000 based on it's characteristics which were new to the arsenal patterns. Thus we can date it with some, not exact certainty which is about as good as it usually gets. I apologize for rattling on. Those are good questions but not easily answered.

Tim Welch
L.D.Haning and Co.

[David Fox]

Re: U.S. Cap Pouches

Shall await The Book on cap pouches, patient fellow that I am. Meantime, can anyone out there provide a thumb-nail insight into the whys and whens of the shield front cap box design? The derivation of this article of issue is one of several glaring holes in my pitiable fund of knowledge.