In the Confederate Army, all officers were required to purchase their own horses and tack. Most brought their own tack when they entered service, but these early saddles and equipment were used up on active campaign. Beginning in early 1862, most officers’ saddles were purchased from Confederate Ordnance Depots and by 1863, virtually all.[i]

Officers’ saddles used a better quality of leather, had upgraded features like hooded stirrups, ornamented leather and sometimes brass and stitching superior to enlisted saddles. For example, the saddle shown here has ornamental escutcheons over non-existent mortises, hooded stirrups, domed tacks and perforated leather over what would otherwise be an open seat. All of which are upgrades. The lack of staples and mortises' indicates it was owned by a field grade officer who could put his necessaries in the headquarters wagon. Captains and Lieutenants did not have this luxury after 1861. General officers could order even more elaborate saddles.

In the East, these came from the Richmond, Lynchburg, Staunton or Danville Depots, but were produced primarily by the Confederate shops at Clarksville, Virginia. Clarksville is located in south-central Virginia, near the North Carolina border. The shops at Clarksville served as a major supply and manufacturing center for the Richmond Arsenal, manufacturing all manner of cavalry and artillery horse equipment.

There are three basic variations of officers’ saddles attributed to the Clarksville shops, the Jenifer, the McClellen and British issue. The earliest Clarksville production saddles were made on the Jenifer pattern. In early 1863, the Clarksville shops began manufacturing saddles based on the U.S. McClellan pattern. There are several small differences from the U.S. McClellan, and two distinct differences; tacks are used to secure the cantle and seat leather, rather than stitching, and brass screws are used to secure the skirts.

In February 1864[ii], due to Wartime shortages and the price of supplies, upgrades to officers’ saddles were severely limited. No more could they order stirrup covers, or excessive ornamentation.[iii] Thus this saddle’s manufacture can be dated fairly accurately to 1863. For a slightly lower grade example see American Military Saddle, 1776-1945, by Stephen Dorsey and Kenneth McPheeters, page 64.

The saddle’s oiled russet leather (the oil making it darker) is in excellent, as found, natural condition. One of the cinch straps has been put back together relatively recently. There are a couple of very old repairs where the quarter straps join the ring on the off side, and there are old repairs to the quarter straps themselves on the near side. Both of these are where the saddle naturally received its hardest service and was done during the saddle’s service life.

There appears to be a name scratched into the leather within the shield, but I have been unable to make it out.

Usually when I see a Confederate saddle for sale, it is at best a reworked tree or a tree that need reworked; at worst it is an old saddle falsely advertised as Confederate. There are very, very few genuine Confederate saddles that are in this extraordinary condition.