WWI Haversacks

[M60 Driver]

Just had someone come into my surplus store to sell me a large lot of older miscellaneous military gear. Included was a M1908 haversack as well as an M1910 haversack. Can anybody decipher the numbers on the older haversack seen below?

[M60 Driver]

Here is the M1910 notable not for the condition but for the neat infantry buttons. I have not seen these before.

[M60 Driver]

Here is a closeup of the buttons put on long ago for effect.

[atb]

On the M1910 Haversack- Those "buttons" are M1919 Equipment Marking Tags. They were used after WW1 to mark a soldier's issued individual equipment (haversack, first aid pouch, canteen cover, cartridge belt, etc.). The soldier's unit (company and regiment) and his number within the unit were stamped into the blank space. Each branch of the Army had these tags with their branch insignia (the crossed rifles for infantry, crossed sabers for cavalry, wings and propeller for Air Corps, etc.). There is somewhere on this forum the Quartermaster drawing of these tags I submitted some time ago.

[oldfireguy]

I believe those were unit or company markers.

 

ATB beat me by a second.

[M60 Driver]

Yes, there are some illegible markings in the middle of the buttons in the blank space, but they are just too worn and faded to be able to read.