Why so many buttplates?

[sandmountainslim]

In almost every relic collection I see there are lots of brass buttplates. Why is this? Are these plates the remains of a rifle that was dropped and the iron deterioted or were the buttplates just somehow disgarded by troop? This has always puzzled me.
I have a broken/twisted brass buttplate which someone told me was likely from an Enfield type rifle I am unsure how one would tell one buttplate from the next. Thanks for any help.

 

[PIA]

Darn good question. I have dug a Springfield iron butt plate at a Vicksburg battlefield site and 'eye-balled' another at Champion's Hill, MS, battle site. Both were intact. Also dug a brass Enfield butt plate at Oxford, MS, which was broken in two pieces. To add to this discussion, I dug a rifle barrel (bent) and a lockplate (including trigger, mainspring, et.) at Savannah, GA. Where the heck the rest of the firearms went is a mystery to me! Also at Oxford I dug several Model 1842 gun parts in another area but there was not a butt plate or gun barrel among them.

The iron parts of the firearms have not 'passed'. I've dug two complete muskets. One was a flintlock near the Shiloh, TN, battlefield which was struck in its barrel by either a bullet or an artillery shell fragment. The other I dug at the Helana, AR, battlefield. The reason the latter was left behind was because its mainspring was broken (I discovered this when cleaning it). The latter muskest was a conversion from flintlock to percussion. It's now in a museum.

As an aside, I dug a brass Brown Bess butt plate at a 1700's site near Brunswick, GA. No other musket parts there ecxecpt for a brass side plate. Go figure!

Best regards,
Gary

 

[sandmountainslim]

Thanks for the reply.
This has just always puzzled me, it seems ever collection I see has buttplates, harmonica reeds and coat buttons. Makes me curious as to why these particular items seem to have been lost so often.

 

[tomfhughes]

I was hunting a Union camp that was occupied the night after the battle of Champion Hill, MS. I found a hammer & lockplate to an enfield rifle, two flintlock lockplates, a trigger guard and an iron buttplate. I also found a brass buttplate to an enfield rifle that was totally bent over. I have theorized that the Union army was destroying Confederate captured weapons and disposing of them. This may explain why so many gun parts are found in campsites. Just a theory.
As to why so many buttons are lost, there is probably a more simple answer. Buttons didn't wear for very long under the conditions they were subjected to in camps and battlefields. Buttons would de-attach from shirts and coats very easily. If a button's shank was broken, it was probably discarded. Resoldering or repairing a button "in the field" wouldn't be practical. The Union army was well supplied with button surpluses so discarding useless buttons wasn't that unheard of.