Tin Cartridge Box
 

Hey I'm a new member I do a lot of Reenacting in New York and Pennsylvania. (Im not much for those introduction posts).

I was wondering if anyone has any documentation on Cartridge Boxes made out of tin. I see them around the sutler shops but have never seen anything showing what units used them.

Ah,...
 

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...Another Northern gent,...

...Talk to REVWARDOC, He does that musket stuff for The patriots,...

..."GO STEELERS",...

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Personally, I've never seen anyone use a tin cartouche box; plenty made of leather-bound wood, some with shoulder straps, some belly-boxes.

http://www.patriotfiles.com/forum/iipcache/612.png

Here's a photo of a typical belly-box. It has two leather belt loops in the back and was designed to be worn pushed to the back on the march and slid to the front during battle. Leather-bound wood was more waterproof than tin and, of course, didn't rust or rattle.

In Reenacting for the "War Between the States" the Union Cartridge carry was leather with two Tin Cartridge sleeves that you could pull up to retrieve more rolled cartridges, Thats the only type Tin Cartridge box I know of.

I'm sorry that I wasn't able to get back- the tin cartridge boxes I was referring to was this kind-

http://www.gggodwin.com/cartridgetin.jpg

I have found some things out about them (enough for me to be able to carry one)- they were made to replace the leather boxes which were in short supply in the American Army. West Point has some originals on display, and they were in New York.

It looks like an ordinance storage box rather than the type carried by a soldier. It probably had many waxed-paper-wrapped packs of 10 cartridges. Most solders of the Rev War era carried 60 rounds; 20+ in the cartouche box (depending upon its type), and 40 in a haversack or snap-sack, or maybe in the cartouche box behind the drilled wood cartridge holder if there was room.

Tin cartrige box liners were mostly a Civil War item. During the Revolutionary war the liners for cartrige boxes were made of wood.