Eagle Head Swords...

[Private Watkins]

One of my favorite sword types is the Eagle Head militia... would love to see any examples you might have to share. Here are a few to start with...

 

[Patrick H]

I agree they are quite beautiful, but I must admit I know nothing about them. Maybe I'll learn something by following this thread. I hope many others post some fine swords and sabers here.

 

[Private Watkins]

This is the Eagle Head sword that Barksdale is said to have carried when killed assaulting the Peach Orchard on Day 2 of Gettysburg...
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[Private Watkins]

Another awesome Eagle Head...

 

[Private Watkins]

THE UNDER-APPRECIATED EAGLE
The Eagle Head Sword was prominently adopted by militias and the American military shortly after the American Revolution. During the Federal period, it reached its peak fading into the 1840's. The abundance, style, and variety make it a perfect target for the collector. The makers are numerous, and much information may be found in books such as The American Eagle-Pommel Sword (Books I & II) by Andrew Mowbray, American Swords & Sword Maker's Marks by Donald Clegg Furr, and Silver-Mounted Swords by Daniel Hardzler.
https://www.swordsus.com/eagle-head-swords.html

 

[Private Watkins]

I also love to see images of soldiers with Eagle Head swords... this Rebel has got one that looks similar, though certainly not an exact match, with the very first sword shown above in the initial post...

 

[Private Watkins]

And here's a Yankee with a real nice Eagle Head...

Of course one never knows if just a photographer's prop... but it looks good!

 

[Patrick H]

Man...some of these swords are just over the top beautiful!

 

[Specster]

They certainly are appealing. I have two ...both German/Prussian circa 1880-1910. I have one more, just the head with no idea of maker, year or Country of Oragin. One of mine is often show with rubys for eyes. They are missing from my sword. I dont know if someone pried them out or otherwise

 

[Patrick H]

I dont know if someone pried them out or otherwise

Oh, those dirty bxxxxxxx!

 

[Specster]

This is the Eagle Head sword that Barksdale is said to have carried when killed assaulting the Peach Orchard on Day 2 of Gettysburg...
Expired Image Removed

That is impressive (if it is authentic). Im not questioning your integrity. There are items I have bought and now have doubts. In I typically did not buy in haste.

 

[Private Watkins]

That is impressive (if it is authentic). Im not questioning your integrity. There are items I have bought and now have doubts. In I typically did not buy in haste.

I have no idea if it's the real deal or not (and it's not mine anyway...) I think it's housed in the Museum division of the Mississippi Dept of Archives & History... http://mdah.state.ms.us/senseofplace/2013/07/01/today-in-history-battle-of-gettysburg/

And I'm right there with you about being cautious, skeptical, and prudent about stuff out there...

 

[Glen_C]

We have to be careful with attributions in studio photographs, for instance those with the subject just holding the sword. In such cases, the sword just used as a prop.

I have many more images than swords in my collection but eagle pommel swords a bit of a passion of mine. Here are some folders I am forever working on and uploaded for the public some months ago. Some are out of place and others not eagles at all. Anyway
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B9AOFMA8y3ODNllwS21ja1FuVmM&usp=sharing

My growing collection, I just added another spadroon

Study the portraits of individuals with the swords to determine if they are wearing a sword belt and the scabbard is attached with straps, stuff like that.

The above a much earlier Ketland type eagle that predates the ACW by some decades.

My recent purchase, an 1840ish unmarked Ames sword.

So yes, I like the eagles

Cheers

GC

 

[Specster]

I have no idea if it's the real deal or not (and it's not mine anyway...) I think it's housed in the Museum division of the Mississippi Dept of Archives & History... http://mdah.state.ms.us/senseofplace/2013/07/01/today-in-history-battle-of-gettysburg/

And I'm right there with you about being cautious, skeptical, and prudent about stuff out there...

I have had people claim, on the basis of some caulk marks indicating it was in the inventory of a smaller museum, that the item is "legit" because it had been in a museum collection. It only takes one mediocre curator to buy junk. Often, when they do, they try to make a claim that it is legit, and try to re-coop their $$$ by finding another sucker.

30 or so years ago, one guy in his early 20s fooled, basically, the entire higher up of the Morman Church (LDS). I think his name was Hofmann, he claimed he had found serveral rare documents, which could be traced back to a church founder. As I recall he was taking new paper, forging handwriting of legit people, and spraying it with ammonia. The docuents were reviewed by experts who deemed them legit.

Eventually he was exposed - and then it turned into a real mess, as I recall he tried to kill one of the people who exposed him.

I know I am off point on the OP. Yet, I am reiterating Caveot Emptor. I dont care who says what, at the end of the day you have to make your own decision and live with it.

 

[Private Watkins]

I have had people claim, on the basis of some caulk marks indicating it was in the inventory of a smaller museum, that the item is "legit" because it had been in a museum collection. It only takes one mediocre curator to buy junk. Often, when they do, they try to make a claim that it is legit, and try to re-coop their $$$ by finding another sucker.

30 or so years ago, one guy in his early 20s fooled, basically, the entire higher up of the Morman Church (LDS). I think his name was Hofmann, he claimed he had found serveral rare documents, which could be traced back to a church founder. As I recall he was taking new paper, forging handwriting of legit people, and spraying it with ammonia. The docuents were reviewed by experts who deemed them legit.

Eventually he was exposed - and then it turned into a real mess, as I recall he tried to kill one of the people who exposed him.

I know I am off point on the OP. Yet, I am reiterating Caveot Emptor. I dont care who says what, at the end of the day you have to make your own decision and live with it.

I'm with you... If and/or when I ever, rarely, buy something, I usually do so with the view that I won't get my money back... which helps to limit the collecting impulse. I figure if I buy it, I'm glad to have it, and that's enough whether or not I can ever sell it for what I've got in it or not... I still like to collect here and there, but I treat it as an expense, not an investment. I've been burned a couple of times myself, school of hard knocks...

 

[Glen_C]

Here is the museum page for the sword reputed to have been Barksdale's
http://mdah.state.ms.us/senseofplace/2013/07/01/today-in-history-battle-of-gettysburg/

While it is repeatedly said a number of eagle pommel swords were carried during the ACW, individual examples require ironclad provenance. Most studio portraits don't cut it, nor the plethora of "storied" family heirlooms.

Consider the facts, militia did join the war. Some eagle pommel swords inevitably did serve but that can be said for any sword made before or during the conflict.

Here is another from my files. Surgeon Gilbert, Ft. Monroe, 1861.
Photo found on braceface.com many years ago.

Connecting a specific sword to that photo is then what would be good provenance but not without a list of ownership back to the individual.

Cheers

GC

 

[Private Watkins]

My growing collection, I just added another spadroon

What an awesome collection...!!! I'm curious about the sword on the lower right... it appears to look very much like this one... but was wondering if you could validate...?

 

[Glen_C]

The one eagle pommel I know to have been made during the ACW as a production item was the Roby bowie. In this studio photo quite possibly stuck in the belt as a prop. The sale copy read as

"Great CDV Portrait of a Federal Infantryman, Probably 44th Mass. Inf., With ID on Verso but Difficult to Discern. Wears shell jacket with Enfield ctg. Box and sling and waist belt with snake buckle. A large eagle pommel Roby Bowie knife is tucked in the front of his belt. Holds Enfield rifled musket with bayonet fixed. Military backdrop and American flag on the table at his side. Appears to be a period copy of a tintype. Backmark of "Miller 58 Main Street Charlestown" (Mass.) Very fine quality and condition, possibly slightly trimmed along the top edge but detracts nothing from the image. Important image providing a context for the use of these rare knives."

The Roby bowies , while being a production item, one of the scarcer knives out there.

There were no US regulation eagle pommels after the adoption of the 1852 naval sword but the eagle pommels popular in the militia and academies for years after that, The post ACW military association eagle pommels quite common on auction sites listed as much earlier. These continue in Ames and Pettibone catalogs into the twentieth century. There is a mythical midshipman's dirk said to have been ordered in the 1860s but none have been confirmed to exist.

ACW eagle pommel swords more of a romantic note than the much more common carry of them from the late 1790s up through the 1830s. The swords in that rack range up to the late 1840s, with the battered Thurkle at the top (our left) late 1790s. Other swords on that rack are earlier and the sword in the foreground from the early 18th century. A Starr 1818 nco sword perches on the top.

Swords are fun!

GC

 

[James N.]

And here's a Yankee with a real nice Eagle Head...

Of course one never knows if just a photographer's prop... but it looks good!

Highly doubtful this is anything other than a photographer's prop. For one thing, there's no frog or other means of suspension on his belt; besides, these were officers' swords and this is an enlisted private of artillery. Besides, since these had by then long been out of regulation they were exactly the sort of prop easily available to an enterprising photographer.

 

[Glen_C]

What an awesome collection...!!! I'm curious about the sword on the lower right... it appears to look very much like this one... but was wondering if you could validate...?

Yes a sibling broadsword and I believe them to be 1840s and possibly even later. A similar sword is referenced in the Flayderman/Mowbray Medicus collection book. Mine was a bit grundgy and lacked a scabbard. Some of this particular form with have blue&gilt, while others white etch, or none at all.

If you browse the google drive files I linked, you will find more pictures of the example you have shared and mine in the folder marked Spies. British made and exported to dealers in America.

Cheers

GC