Cross belt

Reenactment of British infantry of 1815. Line infantry wear white cross belts with belt plates, with the officer on the right wearing a single shoulder belt to his left hip which carries his sabre's scabbard.

A cross belt is two connected straps worn across the body to distribute the weight of loads, carried at the hip, across the shoulders and trunk. It is roughly identical to two shoulder belts joined with a single buckle at the center of the chest.

Military use

For most line infantry, skirmishers, light infantry, grenadiers and guard regiments during much of Europe's Age of Gunpowder, either a cross belt or two shoulder belts were worn. One configuration for the belts would be the cartridge box on the right hip and sword scabbard on the left. Such equipment would be attached to the belt at its lowest point, where it rests on the hip. Officers almost never carried muskets or rifles, so they typically wore only one shoulder belt, such as for the pistol cartridge box or for a sabre scabbard. As officers were often aristocratic and used many independent symbols for their family, rank, and command, their uniforms and gear organisation could be highly variable.^[1]

For British infantry, the cross belt had a metal belt plate with the regiment of the soldier inscribed on it.^[2]

Time period

The cross belt was predominantly used from the 1700s (American Revolutionary War) to the 1840s – they were not part of a soldier's equipment in the American Civil War and Anglo-Zulu War/First Boer War.

See also

• Shoulder belt

References