From the records...breast straps and cruppers.

[Mike Ventura]

Like many of you, I am very appreciative of the excellent material that Will McDonald continues to post regarding equipment issue to various mounted units. Thanks Will!!!

I'm surprised at the rather consistent mention of both breast straps and cruppers. The latest being in Will's info on the 1st Arkansas, a Trans-Mississippi unit. Anyone else noticing this? Have we perhaps underestimated the use of these?

Ken Knopp - I'd be interested in your take on this.

[Ken Knopp]

Re: From the records...breast straps and cruppers.

Mike, These are my opinions from my research and book. Perhaps new information found on footnote, etc. may change or add to it. Due to the scattering of tid bits of information individual equipment pieces like this (and other items of Confedeate minutia) it is a difficult subject from which to draw conclusions.

Martingales: From my observation of the records, in the Confederacy, the effort to manufacture and issue a breast strap or martingale appears to have been left to the discretion of the individual Arsenals. In spite of the fact that they were not officially sanctioned in the 1863 Ordnance Manual ( a reprint of the Federal 1861 manual) throughout the war it is clear some Confederate Arsenals routinely issued them as part of their enlisted men’s horse equipment while others did so only occasionally, or..... not at all. Equipment intended for sale to officers appear to have almost always included a martingale or breast strap, apparently of distinctly better quality.

In the East, Ordnance Department and contractor’s records suggest that both the Jenifer and McClellen trooper’s saddles manufactured through the Richmond Arsenal during the war, rarely included a breast strap, while officer’s saddles often had them. Perhaps they were more common than we know or, they were included as a “set” but from what I have seen individual manufacture of them through the Richmond Arsenal does not appear in the records for that arsenal or Clarksville. Others mileage may vary.
In the West, breast strap issues were even more inconsistent. Trooper’s saddles made at the Nashville and Atlanta Arsenals appear to have “always” (or nearly so) included a breast strap but at the Macon and Augusta Arsenals only a few “martingales” seem to have been provided with their trooper’s saddles. For the other Western Arsenals, including production in the Trans-Mississippi, a conclusion is at best, uncertain. Nevertheless, the Southern trooper, lacking a breast collar or a martingale with his equipment, like their Northern counterparts likely improvised his own (and often did so) if the need arose.

I have never been able to find a description or record detailing the configuration and appearance of Confederate Arsenal-made breast straps or martingales but one can speculate that they widely varied in construction but similar to period military or civilian patterns.


Crupper: The crupper was a common item of issue with almost every pre-war pattern of Federal military horse equipment. For the eastern south, cruppers were customarily supplied as part of each set of Jenifer or McClellen saddles from the Richmond Arsenal particularly early in the war. However, they do not often appear as a regular item of issue from the Western arsenals (at least from my review of the surviving docs). Mid to late-war records from all Southern Arsenals suggest fewer cruppers were manufactured and issued as the war progressed probably because they found out the relative uselessness vs necessity of this piece of equipment and the need to prioritize other items for manufacture.. Surviving Ordnance files that I have seen are inconclusive as to why.
As for their appearance, they are pretty simple and common so the basic crupper configuration detailed in the Ordnance Manuals are likely the pattern produced. However, some probable material differences in Confederate manufactured cruppers should be noted such as hardware variations, use of russet leather (sometimes) and probably poor construction at other times. As with all officer’s equipments particularly until the very late war, officer’s cruppers were often of higher quality and better materials including hardware.


In short, the variances found in the wonderful research that Will McDonald has done can be explained (in my opinion) by the inconsistent issue from arsenals and probably, the lack of surviving Confederate records to fully explain the reasons for it.


Ken R Knopp

[TexCavly]

Re: From the records...breast straps and cruppers.

Could Geography or "the lay of the land" have anything to do with the issue of these items? I can understand why the fellas in Arkansas would need both a crupper and a breast strap.

[Mike Ventura]

Re: From the records...breast straps and cruppers.

Ken -As always, a learned response. It just seems to me that I'm seeing more of these listed in the great documents Will i posting than I expected to see.

Mike

[Mississippian]

Re: From the records...breast straps and cruppers.

Here's a little something I'm working on. Thought it might be interesting for this thread.

CSR of Col. T. Lipscomb, 2nd S.C. Cav.

Received July 21st 1862 at Charleston Arsenal (For Bonham Lt. Dragoons, later Co. G)

100 Cavalry Saddles
100 Cavalry Bridles
100 Cavalry Halters
100 Cavalry Martingales
100 Cavalry Cruppers
100 Cavalry Saddle Bags


Will MacDonald

[Mississippian]

Re: From the records...breast straps and cruppers.

Ok, I've gone back through some of the postings I've done earlier and found that several units who were equipped from the Memphis/Columbus MS Arsenal received large numbers of Breast Straps and Cruppers. Here are some of the units, I've found....

Nov. 1861- The "Independent Rebel Rangers" (Later Co. G, 7th TN Cav) received 100 sets of horse equipments that included breast straps and cruppers. Found this just this morning.....
Feb. 1862- The 5th TN Cav. Batt. received 300 Breast Straps and Cruppers from Memphis while in Knoxville.
Aug. 1862- The 2nd MS Cav received their horse equipment, including Brest Straps and Cruppers, at Columbus MS, where the arsenal there was successor to the Memphis Arsenal.

I see a very interesting pattern setting up here, of course we need more research.

Will MacDonald

[Mike Ventura]

Re: From the records...breast straps and cruppers.

Will--

THANKS for connecting the dots. You're right, you could be on to something. Waiting for Ken K's take on this.

[rbruno]

Re: From the records...breast straps and cruppers.

Mike and all,
The info Will continues to post is interesting. There are many items that have come up to challenge some of our understanding, ie gun boots, breast straps, types of ammo, etc. Sometimes I wonder if our (the authentic side of cavalry) set some of our expectations based on NOT doing what is going on in the mainstream world. We want to be so different that we swing the pendelum so far the other direction that we forget that some of the CS side might have been pretty well equiped. I agree, when you look at it from the wide angle lense, there is a lack of items often found for the Federal trooper. But, with a narrow lense, maybe things look very different. This goes to the discussion of are we trying to portray the average CS trooper or a trooper in a particulat theater, or a trooper of a particular unit, and because of the variation even in a unit, I will go one further and are we trying to portray a particualr company? No right answer of course, just a thought.

[Mike Ventura]

Re: From the records...breast straps and cruppers.

Rob--

I totally agree with you, and I have had similar thoughts for a long time. Like you, I wonder if our "authentic" mindset is/was so anti-mainstream that we have adopted our guidelines from that perspective and have, many times, just accepted that "that's the authentic way." I've gleaned more info from these discussions in the last year or so than I have in the previous 10. I think that many of these discussions have helped us open out eyes, and I see "us" as a group growing in knowledge and adjusting our impressions to the new information.

It's unfortunate that those who wrote the requisition orders 1861-65 didn't realize that we'd be going over them mining the details for additional nuggets. If so, they'd have given use more detail! I'm jesting of course...

[Mike Ventura]

Re: From the records...breast straps and cruppers.

Rob--

I totally agree with you, and I have had similar thoughts for a long time. Like you, I wonder if our "authentic" mindset is/was so anti-mainstream that we have adopted our guidelines from that perspective and have, many times, just accepted that "that's the authentic way." I've gleaned more info from these discussions in the last year or so than I have in the previous 10. I think that many of these discussions have helped us open out eyes, and I see "us" as a group growing in knowledge and adjusting our impressions to the new information.

It's unfortunate that those who wrote the requisition orders 1861-65 didn't realize that we'd be going over them mining the details for additional nuggets. If so, they'd have given use more detail! I'm jesting of course...

[Mississippian]

Re: From the records...breast straps and cruppers.

It's posted on their respective threads, but I wanted to add them here:

Oct-Nov. 1861: Co. "E" of Wirt Adams MS Regiment got it's horse & ordnance equipments from Memphis Arsenal and included Breast Straps and Cruppers

Dec. '62-May '63: Several companies of what would become the 3rd and 5th Louisiana Cavalry receive large amounts of horse & ordnance equipments while at Monroe Louisiana, this includes Breast Straps and Cruppers. In Lon Websters book on Confederate Imports, he notes that a large influx of arms and equipment was coming from the other side of the Mississippi during the fall of 1862. I think this gear is part of that shipment.

Aug. 1863: Co. A of the 7th TN Cavalry gets some replacement horse equipment and ordnance while in central Mississippi, includes Breast Straps and Cruppers. Some of the Kerr pistols and other gear may have come from Selma, which was also a decedent of the Memphis Arsenal.

Will MacDonald

[Mississippian]

Re: From the records...breast straps and cruppers.

Found this in the CSR of Lt. E. Robbins, O.O. in Meridian MS.

Received Sept. 11th 1863 at Demopolis Ala, from Selma Arsenal

60 Artillery Collar
20 Pole Straps
60 Enfield Rifles cal .57
65 Cavalry Saddles
172 Breast Straps
219 Cavalry Cruppers
65 Cavalry Valises
600 Brass Spurs
600 pr Spur Straps

And going back to some of my earlier posts you can see where cruppers and to a lesser extent Breast straps are still being issued in the spring of 1864 to units in north and central Mississippi.

Will MacDonald

[Doughboy]

Re: From the records...breast straps and cruppers.

I would assume with valises the cav saddles are Jenifers?

[Ken Knopp]

Re: From the records...breast straps and cruppers.

Jenfier Valise patterns? Not necessarily. The Selma Arsenal discontinued the Jenifer in August of 1863 when they converted production to the McClellan. Demopolis was a satellite facility to Selma and likely made similar equipments there too.
Nevertheless, various valise patterns were also issued from several western arsenals with Macs so their patterns would not necessarily be Jenifer "style" but of any number of patterns .....(IMHO) "probably" typical western arsenal valises of simple leather or canvas (or enamelled cloth).

Ken R Knopp

[ButtermilkRanger]

Re: From the records...breast straps and cruppers.

Does anyone care to speculate what type of saddle was being issued by the Memphis Depot?