Happy Appomattox Day
- Thread starter Lionel_Hutz
- Start date
My family has owned a Civil War sword for 160 years now, and recently it ended up in my hands. I had always been told that it was my Great Great Grandfather's sword, and that he was on Gen. Lee's staff.
With my mother's help (a licensed genealogist), I did some research and found out the family story was not exactly accurate.
First, he was at Appamattox with Lee, and did surrender (there is a list of who signed the surrender terms, you can find on the internet, about 28,000 names), but was in a Georgia artillery unit, not part of Lee's staff.
Second, and more important, the sword he brought home was almost certainly a Union cavalry officer's sword, and was manufactured in Massachusetts in 1865. I am guessing he either traded for it, or picked it up in the last days of the war, but as far as I can tell, was not HIS sword originally.
I also took it to Antique and Modern Firearms, and then did some internet shopping, and found out it really is not worth all that much, probably a few hundred bucks, maybe a $1000 or so. There were hundreds of thousands of swords made during that time and by the turn of the 20th century, they were commonplace. Sadly, the guys at Antique and Modern Firearms told me as time goes by, there is less interest in, and therefore less market for, Civil War memorabilia.
Finally, my Mom found that he was 40 at war's end, but five years later married a 19 year old in 1870, who I guess became my Great Great Grandmother (just guessing there were not a lot of men her age left alive and/or in one piece to pick from in the late 1860s).
But as luck would have it, he outlived her!!
With my mother's help (a licensed genealogist), I did some research and found out the family story was not exactly accurate.
First, he was at Appamattox with Lee, and did surrender (there is a list of who signed the surrender terms, you can find on the internet, about 28,000 names), but was in a Georgia artillery unit, not part of Lee's staff.
Second, and more important, the sword he brought home was almost certainly a Union cavalry officer's sword, and was manufactured in Massachusetts in 1865. I am guessing he either traded for it, or picked it up in the last days of the war, but as far as I can tell, was not HIS sword originally.
I also took it to Antique and Modern Firearms, and then did some internet shopping, and found out it really is not worth all that much, probably a few hundred bucks, maybe a $1000 or so. There were hundreds of thousands of swords made during that time and by the turn of the 20th century, they were commonplace. Sadly, the guys at Antique and Modern Firearms told me as time goes by, there is less interest in, and therefore less market for, Civil War memorabilia.
Finally, my Mom found that he was 40 at war's end, but five years later married a 19 year old in 1870, who I guess became my Great Great Grandmother (just guessing there were not a lot of men her age left alive and/or in one piece to pick from in the late 1860s).
But as luck would have it, he outlived her!!
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Had a few grandfathers and uncles in the confederate army from KY and TN. They were all in the western theatre. But a little known fact. A company from the 1st Kentucky infantry. Joined up with the famed 3rd Arkansas regiment.
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