Background | Guidelines | Vendor List | Books

Metal Polish (click on image to enlarge)
During the Civil War soldier were required to provide their own cleaning supplies as noted in the following letter from Sergeant Bowen of the 12th U.S. Infantry to his wife.

Fort Hamilton, November 13, 1861
"I have got to have a shoe brush and blacking, a button brush, and a clothes brush, and you could send me also in the same a bottle of sweet oil and lump of rotten-stone."
Shown here is one metal polishing product purportedly used by some of the soldiers to polish their rifles with.  The product likely consists of rottenstone or another naturally abrasive product such as soft brick, pumice or flower of emory.  As there are few surviving packages of metal polish from this time, this one provides an interesting example.

For additional insight on polishing metal see Shine that Brass
 
 
 

From the collection of The Union Drummer Boy

Photo by Bob Clayton

Back