Posted 7 years ago
hotairfan
(385 items)
I got these seven iron Caltrops from a gentleman from Shippensburg, PA.
They are cast iron and of the American Civil War style (approx. 1.5" across from point to point), and they were used by both Union & Confederate troops.
He said that he found them 25 years ago, and had them ever since.
He might have found them near Shippensburg, but, he didn't say so.
It is possible that they were found near Shippensburg, because the Union sent 25,000 troops through Shippensburg, on their way to the Gettysburg battle.
American troops used caltrops from the French & Indian Wars to WW II.
The soldiers would strew them on the roads and paths that the enemy cavalry would travel, in the hopes that their horses would step on them and become lame. This more than likely wouldn't harm the horses forever, but they could not be used until the horses healed up.
This often prompted the enemy cavalry to put down the lame animal so their foe couldn't have use of them after they healed.
These come up fairly often in the Civil War collector market place and the general consensus is that caltrops were not used in the Civil War.
Many historians/ collectors/ dealers consider these to be game jacks.
scott
These look more like "jacks". Caltrops were made to have one point straight up, no matter how they land.
general consensus ...... hmmm . Is that another form of fake news?
Caltrops were indeed used in the Civil War. Several books that I have on the civil war display them, including the encyclopedia of Civil War Acrutaments and there are numerous articles on the internet that show them . They were sometimes called "crows feet" when referencing to them in the war between the states. None the less,.... caltrops or crows feet (one in the same) were used in the American Civil War by both sides.
Not all sources are equal.
I don't know that I would put much faith in a book titled "Encyclopedia of Civil War Acrutaments".
Many early Civil War collector books contain mistakes.
Pete George (Civil War author, collector and digger) has noted that NO period reference to caltrops has been found. A keyword search of the Official Records for caltrop or similar terms shows no hits despite the ORs containing tens of thousands of official reports and correspondences of the War.
scott
Mexican American War? I would like to get some of those myself. Not that I have a problem with cavalry around here.