18th Century Original Shot Pouches and Ball Bags/Pouches

First of all, thank you for the pictures and text of this pouch that you took from Albert’s book, as I found it very interesting. Looks like I need to finally add it to my library.



I disagree with your “make do” attribution, but it may be because I have seen a few original and truly “make do” cartouche pouches of the AWI through not only the end of the 18th century, but also into the War of 1812 for militia troops.



Any leather cartouche pouch is a huge step up from a cartouche box (belly box) both in protection of the cartridges from the elements and loss, when the belly box turns over at inopportune times and dumps cartridges on the ground, as well as utility and comfort to the soldier in use. Such “soft” cartouche pouches were quite common early in the war for everyone on the Patriot side and continued to be common for militia use well into the War of 1812. They may/would have had wooden blocks with holes for the cartridges on the inside of the pouch to further protect the cartridges, though the blocks were not normally nailed in place.



The ”most basic” of this type of cartouche pouch was made with two pieces of leather, one short piece for the front and a longer piece for the rear, of which the top served as the pouch flap. The two leather pieces were sewn together with NO welt along the seams and then turned inside out. OR if it was more economical use of the leather, 3 pieces were used and the flap was sewn to the top of the rear piece before or after the pouch was turned inside out. The bottom end of the flap was often straight across with only the sides rounded on the corners. When leather was in short supply, a woven/loomed strap with NO decoration was used and with NO adjustment buckles or any kind of adjustment feature at all. One end of the strap was turned over and sewn to the pouch with the end next to the leather, so it would not unravel. Then they had the soldier hold the pouch where it was supposed to hang and with one strap end attached, the maker would pull the strap over the soldier’s shoulder and mark the end of the strap so it would fit the soldier. Then the strap was cut to fit and likewise sewn to the pouch. “Rolled” leather buttons were the norm on these to hold the flap in place (because they were the cheapest as they were made from leather scraps and VERY common on even British Ordnance Cartouche boxes) and the button hole was NOT reinforced. NOTE: Even as basic as this style pouch was, they were often made that way by Saddlers or at least those who had some training in leather working. Not everything any tradesman did in the period was anywhere close to that person’s best possible work all around and every day. They made things according to what customers could afford and what materials were available.

Actually, some of the most common homemade shot pouches extant and from the late 18th/early 19th century, share many if not most of these design features.



You mentioned, “While it is unnecessarily complicated (with 5 strap keeper loops on each side to compensate for the lack of center bar buckles)”



I am not following your point and that may be my fault. Not sure how a center bar buckle would correct this, unless you are referring to a leather strap? To me, those 5 strap keeper loops on each side actually help demonstrate this pouch was sewn by at least a semi-professional, if not a professional leather worker partly because they are so complicated. It seems to me a way of adding a little style to the pouch. Would an untrained person have added that many of them? I certainly don’t see a reason for it.



Well, I’m about at the end of what my arthritic fingers can handle for right now, but I did want to ask about the way the strap ends are attached to the body of the pouch. Is there a second layer of leather stitched over the ends? I’m not sure as I can’t make it out.


More coming later,

Gus