MODEL 1885 CARBINE
BOOT – MODIFIED TO A CARBINE POMMEL LOOP – RARE INDIAN
WARS FIELD MODIFICATION:
A very rare example of a modified
Model 1885 Carbine Boot with the straps rearranged to
use the boot as a Carbine Loop mounted across the pommel
of the saddle.
The army convened an Equipment Board in July of 1879 to
consider improvements to various pieces of equipment,
accoutrements, clothing, and arms which had been the
subject of criticisms from the field. While the
Ordnance and Quartermaster Departments were never able
to satisfy the myriad of preferences and opinions, they
made a concerted effort to consider recommendations from
the serving officers in the field, and entertained
samples of innovations submitted by officers and
enlisted men alike. The scope of this Board’s
considerations is well worth the time of any serious
student of the Indian Wars army and much of it can be
found in Randy Stephen’s The Horse Soldier,
1776-1943, Vol. 2.
Many pieces of new equipment were examined and
eventually recommended for adoption, the Board’s
recommendations received the all important endorsement
from the Chief of Staff of the Army, William T. Sherman,
and the General’s endorsement was approved by the
Secretary of War G. W. McCrary. All of the participants
in this process must have adjourned satisfied they had
accomplished a great deal. Only later did the finality
of the last sentence of Secretary McCrary’s response to
the General’s endorsements register with the board
members and the army at large, “No changes will be
made at any time which involve an expenditure not
clearly within existing appropriations, and great care
will be taken to avoid a deficiency.” There
would be no funding for most of the changes recommended,
and what little of the new equipment that was produced,
was made only in very limited numbers. In spite of the
lack of funding for new equipment, the ideas approved by
the Board did not necessarily disappear.
One recommendation approved by the Board was the
adoption of a “Carbine Loop” which would provide a
secure method for the soldier to carry his carbine
across the pommel of his saddle. For as long as memory
served, men mounted on horseback had carried their
weapons balanced across their lap, the pommel of the
saddle, or the horse’s neck, and this practice was
particularly common in the American West. It was a
natural posture as the weapon was kept in hand, ready to
be employed, while the rider did not have to bear the
weight in his hand or suspended from his body via a
sling arrangement.
While urging the adoption of the Carbine Loop, the Board
retained the carbine sling and the carbine socket or
thimble then in service. The Carbine Loop was included
in the description of the Whitman Saddle, “The carbine
loop, of the pattern submitted, to be attached by buckle
and stud to pommel.” When Sherman penned his
endorsements regarding the Board’s recommendations, he
wrote, “That the carbine socket be retained but changed
to the form prepared by Sgt. Hartman, First Cavalry,
with a carbine loop attached to the pommel of the
saddle.” Unfortunately, the “pattern submitted” is not
known to exist, however Randy Stephen provided several
interpretive depictions in his Volume 2, sited above,
and shown here.
While the appropriations would not be forthcoming to
produce the Carbine Loop, five years later another
equipment board would approve and adopt the Model 1885
Carbine Boot, and it was manufactured at the Rock Island
Arsenal and issued in significant numbers. That the new
boot was intended to be attached to the troopers’
saddles so that the carbine was carried muzzle down
along the troopers’ right leg is well documented, and no
doubt that is how it was employed by the majority of
soldiers. However the discovery of this modified Model
1885 Carbine Boot reveals that the concept of the
Carbine Loop was not forgotten and at least some unit
saddlers and soldiers pressed forward with the concept.
This rare surviving example of the soldiers’ handiwork
was a fairly simple modification which consisted of
removing the long suspension strap and the upper body
strap from the boot, reattaching the upper body strap to
the top edge of the boot, and adding additional leather
to both the upper and lower straps. This repositioning
of the upper strap and lengthening of the straps allowed
the boot to be laid across the saddle pommel roll in
front of the mounted soldier and the straps were of
sufficient length to buckle around the pommel roll and,
if necessary, engage the saddle equipment rings or foot
loops. The carbine would seat deep enough in the boot
to secure it in place, as well as being close at hand
for the soldier to steady the load when necessary or
draw the carbine when needed.
This is the only known example of this particular
modification which has come to light. Based on the
evidence of wear to the straps on this boot, it was used
in the field, but it was not abused and it has survived
in better condition than some of the Model 1885 Boots
which were used in the standard configuration. No doubt
this is not the only boot which was so modified and used
as a Carbine Loop, but it is an equal certainty that the
majority of those which were configured this way were
used to destruction on the trail of Apaches through the
Arizona mountains, and on similar rough campaigns
throughout the West.
That so few modified accoutrements survive today can be
easily explained when viewed through the Ordnance
Department’s process of issue and return. When the
units received new issues of current equipment and
returned the obsolete or worn out accoutrements and
equipment to the Ordnance Depots, those pieces that had
been modified were looked upon by the Ordnance
Department personnel as damaged beyond repair, or the
necessary repairs to return the item to its original
configuration were not cost effective – especially if it
was an obsolete pattern. It is very likely the modified
pieces were condemned and destroyed with the other
unserviceable equipment, and they simply did not survive
to be funneled into the surplus sales that would
eventually lead to the collectors’ market.
The small number of surviving modified accoutrements
serves as quiet testimony of the efforts of the soldiers
and the Ordnance Department to adapt stocks of surplus
material to suit the needs encountered on the Frontier.
Surviving examples such as this boot are rare and they
are a fascinating field of collecting in their own
right.
In
spite of obvious issue and use, this boot is in full
form and it is in very good condition with a bright,
smooth shiny leather surface and very little crazing.
The straps are supple with no weak spots and both of the
buckles are present.
The “ROCK ISLAND ARSENAL”
stamp is fully legible on the face of the boot. The
legible inspector’s stamp, “D.C.L.” on the end of the
lower suspension strap, confirms that straps were
salvaged from this boot, or others, in order to extend
the straps on this boot so they were long enough to
circle the pommel roll.
As stated above, this is
a unique specimen, a rare one of kind, and a
historically important example of how the frontier
soldier adapted his equipment to the environment with
skill and common sense. For those who appreciate these
soldier modified pieces, this will be a key piece for
your collection. (0409) $675
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