Boots & friends,
The below references contain both civilian and military references. Perhaps they can add to the scholarly nature this thread has taken.
The first reference I have to Mills belts being sold in my Victorian era gun & related items catalog collection is on page 35 of the 1883 Hodgkins & Haigh Illustrated Catalogue and Price List: Guns, Rifles and Sporting Goods, New York. However, there is information below that supports Mills we belts being commercially available starting in 1881.
Regarding metal tubes on a cartridge belt to hold cartridges: This is a patented feature by the firm Pooler & Jones and it was called the ‘Boss Cartridge Holder’. The earliest reference in my catalog collection is on page 11 of the 1879 Pribyl Bros, Importer and Jobber of Breech-Loading Guns: Rifles, Revolvers, Shooting Implements, Sporting Goods, Gun Powders, Shot, Traps catalog. These were sold in both belt and vest configurations and listed only for shotgun in the catalog description.
Pg 35, The U.S. Army in the West, 1870-1880 by Douglas C. McChristian: “Even though the leather cartridge box was often used on campaign, soldiers were quick to adopt the looped belts worn by civilian frontiersmen armed with metallic cartridge weapons. Known variously as thimble, fringed, prairie, or scouting belts, these were found among troops on the frontier as early as 1867. The men fabricated them by sewing forty to fifty leather or canvas loops on an issue belt or other piece of ‘appropriated’ leather.”
Pg 216, The U.S. Army in the West, 1870-1880 by Douglas C. McChristian: Thimble or Prairie Cartridge Belts – “Field Fabricated cartridge belts took a variety of forms and were used by both soldiers and civilians on the frontier. Certain common features have been noted among examples with known or probable military provenance. The use of a cast-off army belt plate, either 1851 eagle plate or the 1839-pattern U.S. oval, was a distinctive feature of belts of military origin, although period photographs show many civilians wearing them as well.”
Pg 227, American Military and Naval Belts 1812-1902 by Stephen Dorsey: “As Anson Mills noted in his autobiography, a version of the looped cartridge belt or ‘scouting belt’ had been unsuccessfully ‘submitted to every equipment board organized between 1866 and 1879.’ The apparent profusion and popularity of these unofficial ‘scouting’ or ‘fair weather Christian belts’ must have been somewhat of an embarrassment to the Ordnance Department and, finally, particularly after a cool reception of the Hazen Loops in the field, the inevitable was accepted.”
Pg 373, American Military and Naval Belts 1812-1902 by Stephen Dorsey: “As early as the beginning of Mill’s first military contract [for Mills belts and his patented weaving process that was formalized on 15 March 1881, not related to the M1876 web/leather combination type per pg 376-377], he was engaged in providing the commercial market with looped cartridge belts. Is decision to enter into a five-year contract with the Winchester Repeating Firearms Co to market his belts was a good one and gave his belts access to a broad market in the U.S. and overseas.”
J.R. Logan – I am unable to find any references to the kind of belt you described in your post that kicked-off this thread. If I do find anything I’ll let you know.
YMH&OS,
MJB