Early militia style belt pouch

[T.C.Albert]

The size, decoration and shape of this belt pouch
Is consistent with many early militia pouches including
The famous Lyman bag. I believe they were primarily
For use with militia muskets and the divided inside pocket
Was made that way primarily to separate buck and ball shot Beginning in the mid 18th century.
TCA

[thecapgunkid]

Nice post, and probably an accurate conjecture as to why used.

One winter a bunch of us in Rogers Rangers, Boat 17, went out on a snowshoe trek and, somewhere on Black Mountain, NY, and found a dead tree about  six feet tall.  One of the guys got us to do a hasty stake shoot just to see what some elements of battle in the snow might have been like.  Haven't a clue as to why I had a bag like this, made of plain old cowhide and poorly dyed.  But darned if that bag did not make one world of difference when throwing everything in the muzzle and coping with the 25 below , sunny weather, speed shoot.  I hadn't yet learned the virtues of a simple cartridge containing both ball and powder, so I had paper loads on one side and ball on the other in the divided bag.

Since you don't turn a bag like this inside out, it's a simple stitch that works great.  If made of cow, all you need to do once stitched up is wet it and bulge it with your fingers.  If you elect not to dye it, some neatsfoot oil and a lot of sun will give it a great patina to start off a lot of trail memories as it ages. 

Thanks, T.C.

[JW]

Nice. Don't see too many repros with buckles for enclosure. I've seen original cartridge boxes with buckles on the flap, so it seems to fit. It certainly smacks of something a professional saddler would add. The buckle appears to be brass, is that correct?  What about the buckle tongue?  I don't recall seeing any 18th century buckles with brass tongues, but I could be wrong. 

It's kind of funny but when I saw the picture I though, "boy, that looks familiar." It dawned on me that my wife has a purse with a nearly identical profile and with an identical buckle enclosure (albeit with a faux buckle with a spring to snap it closed). I remember buying her that purse because the leather quality was outstanding and easily worth the cost of the bag itself. Some designs are so good they never change.