RARE US M.1860 STAFF AND FIELD OFFICER’S SWORD AND SCABBARD

Standard pattern carried in the Civil War. See The American Sword, Peterson #121. Brass hilt with eagle pommel and guard. Floral motif knuckle bow. Wire wrapped leather covered grip. 25” straight double edged blade decorated with oak foliage, palmettos, scrolling tendrils and crossed lances with pennons. Lances were used at the beginning of the Civil War, most famously by the 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry (Rush’s Lancers). This then, is the sword of a Cavalry officer of a regiment formed to incorporate lancers. Others were Kelly’s Lancers of the 1st West Virginia, Fremont Hussars (merged with 4th Missouri) and Sobollaski’s Independent Company of St. Louis. The sword is accompanied by a brass mounted leather scabbard with the body sheathed in tinned sheet iron. It is skillfully punch inscribed with LINCOLN & UNION in 1864 probably at the time its owner was mustered out of service. The letters accented with red paint inlay and probably displayed at a GAR post. A rare sword with a classic example of Civil War folk art.