Note 71 — Insignia of the Regular Army

This specimen was extremely puzzling for many years. The design is obviously that of the War of 1812 period, bearing strong similarity to both the 1812 and 1814 infantry plates and the 1814 Artillery Corps plate, possibly the work of the same die sinker. The 1804 Marine Corps uniform regulations specified merely a "Brass Eagle and Plate," but the 1807 regulations called for "Octagon plates."[71] Thus there was considerable reluctance to accept this die sample as the authentic design. In the summer of 1959, however, the authors, excavating at Fort Tomkins, New York, which was known to have had a small barracks for the use of naval personnel ashore, recovered parts of two brass plates of this identical design, and in the octagon shape—that is, rectangular with clipped corners (fig. 29). The design may thus be precisely dated.