RM1425 Outstanding Civil War Union Canteen with dark blue cover and leather carrying strap. The NY Depot was a branch of the U.S. Quartermaster’s Office of Clothing and Equipage. They contracted with various dealers and makers for hundreds of thousands of canteens during the war and a distinguishing feature of their canteens was the use of a metal chain instead of simple string to retain the stopper starting in 1862. This one has a stopper and no chain but shows the small hole in one strap bracket where the chain would have been fastened. It also has a scarce dark blue cover likely dating to 1863 when the depot seems to have followed the lead of the Philadelphia Depot in using blue uniform cloth, mostly light blue, and switching to shoddy gray in 1864 and 1865. The leather strap shows a wear spot and the ends have been crudely overlapped and sewn, likely to shorten it for a better fit or to repair a break.
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