July/August, 2012
The Citizens & Soldiers Digest
40
rough side) leather, which has been dyed on both sides. It is totally hand sewn with the snake hook itself measuring 1 ½ inches in length and 1 inch in width. The main differential of the SIC&Co belt and the regulation belt is the snake hook is attached to the wrong side of the belt, on the side of the teardrop tongue, as opposed to the regulation belt which has the snake hook on the opposite end. It is also not as wide as the regulation belt being some 1 3/4 inches instead of two inches. Another variation of the S. Isaac Campbell & Co P54 waist belt was this time made from black bridle (smooth out finish) leather.
ABOVE: An original S. Isaac Campbell & Co stamped sword belt (Gunbroker.com)
ABOVE: The SIC&Co P54 belt variant (John Spicer) This model exhibited differing features to the Greenville belt; the first was the lack of the tunnel stitch to attach the tongue to the belt. Instead it was attached using
three rows of visible stitching; and the snake hook this time is attached to the opposite end of the belt. It still uses the same size and style of snake buckle. The belt pictured (above) is a sword belt supplied by the company for the Confederacy. This is a commercial copy of the black leather sword belt as in British regulations for Staff Sergeants. It is constructed from black bridle leather and uses a smaller than normal snake buckle as compared to the company made P54 variety with a flower in the centre. It features two brass “O” rings to which the separate pieces of the belt are fastened. The four rows of stitching between the tongue and the front ring is actually one long piece of leather folded over three times and hand sewn. The most likely reason for S. Isaac Campbell & Co’s suppliers manufacturing belts from both bridle (smooth out) and waxed (rough side out) is probably simply due to supply and demand. Since the leather continued...
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