A field desk is a

portable desk The portable desk had many forms and is an ancestor of the portable computer, the modern laptop an atavistic grandchild of the 19th-century lap desk. Medieval era and Renaissance All desks were portable to some extent, from medieval times to the ...

which is meant to be used in rear areas near a battlefield and moved around rather frequently in difficult conditions. It is in contrast to the campaign desk, which is usually heavier and meant for areas further in the rear. The field desk is both an antique and a modern

desk A desk or bureau is a piece of furniture with a flat table (furniture), table-style work surface used in a school, office, home or the like for academic, professional or domestic activities such as reading (activity), reading, writing, or using ...

form. The antique form is usually made of fine woods and

brass Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, in proportions which can be varied to achieve different colours and mechanical, electrical, acoustic and chemical properties, but copper typically has the larger proportion, generally copper and zinc. I ...

fittings. The smaller versions can often be confused with the civilian

writing slope Writing is the act of creating a persistent representation of language. A writing system includes a particular set of symbols called a ''script'', as well as the rules by which they encode a particular spoken language. Every written language ...

. This is quite understandable, because during the 18th and 19th centuries they were often used interchangeably. There is a wide variety of antique field desks, ranging from small suitcase-sized ones to fairly big chests, like the one general Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson used during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Until recently, General Jackson's desk was exhibited in the museum of the

Virginia Military Institute The Virginia Military Institute (VMI) is a public senior military college in Lexington, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1839 as America's first state military college and is the oldest public senior military college in the U.S. In k ...

(VMI). At one point, VMI gave a licence to a furniture manufacturer to produce copies of the desk, available on the web. The field desk was a civil war officers "office in a box." This portable, upright desk has a drop-down front used for a writing surface. The most common modern field desk is made of resistant plastic composites and

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

aluminium Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...

. It is built to

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

standards or to the standards of national armies. There are several variants, but the most common one is a nearly cubic chest whose lid is removed to expose internal drawers and then reattached on the side to serve as a desktop.

References

*Christopher Schwarz. "Field Desk". Campaign Furniture. Lost Art Press. 2014. Chapter 9. Page
214
to 233. See also pages 28, 33, 159, 309, 310 and 314. *Nicholas A Brawer. British Campaign Furniture: Elegance Under Canvas, 1740-1914. Harry N Abrams. 2001. *"Company Field Desk". Company Administration. Special Regulations No 57. 1919. Section 10. Page
117
to 123. *"Company Field Desks". Annual Reports of the War Department. 1906
p 142