Reenactment Civil War Belts and Buckles
In any Civil War reenactment, regardless of how rigid the requirements for authenticity, there is one item of the soldiers uniform that has to be right. Even though the Union and Confederate armies had similar styles of belt buckles each had their own unique identifying characteristics.
There were several standard US Army belt plates. There is the rectangular buckle made of cast brass with an Eagle and Union shield with a separate silver wreath attached. This buckle was worn by officers, non-commissioned officers and mounted soldiers. Another was a round cartridge box-shoulder belt buckle with eagle. This buckle was used with a sword belt as well. The most worn Union buckle was the enlisted mans, oval shaped, cast brass belt plate with raised US letters.
The most common Confederate buckle was a frame type buckle. There were rectangular and oval cast buckles with either CSA or CS letters as well. Stamped copper buckles backed by lead were common too.
Civil-War-Costumes has wide variety of the reproduction buckles and belts for sale. You can get a reenactment quality Civil War belt and buckle set, or just the buckle, at prices that will be hard to beat any where else.
