Solomon
Private
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2017
- Location
- Knoxville, TN
Thought I would post a few pics of a GAR sword I recently acquired, as it is a neat piece of memorabilia from the CW veterans era. I have seen pictures of a nearly identical sword on page 110 of "Plates, Belts, and Swords of the GAR and SUV of the Civil War," by Douglas Roussin, which is a great reference book for the GAR/SUV collector to have on the shelf!
The sword is etched on one side with "Post 73 GAR 1895" and on the reverse with "McPherson", which I'd initially assumed was the name of the respective veteran. But as Roussin correctly asserts, it was the name of GAR Post 73, in Abington, MA (founded 1868) as I discovered searching the GAR and Kindred Societies archives in the Library of Congress (https://www.loc.gov/rr/main/gar/index.html) and the SUVCW website (http://www.suvcw.org/garrecords/) - also great resources! The etchings on this particular sword are ever-so-slightly different than the ones pictured by Roussin, so this post must have had multiple swords commissioned by the manufacturer, W.M. Read and Sons, of Boston, MA.
These seem to be relatively rare, as far as CW sword collecting goes, and thrilled to have this one in my humble collection!
The sword is etched on one side with "Post 73 GAR 1895" and on the reverse with "McPherson", which I'd initially assumed was the name of the respective veteran. But as Roussin correctly asserts, it was the name of GAR Post 73, in Abington, MA (founded 1868) as I discovered searching the GAR and Kindred Societies archives in the Library of Congress (https://www.loc.gov/rr/main/gar/index.html) and the SUVCW website (http://www.suvcw.org/garrecords/) - also great resources! The etchings on this particular sword are ever-so-slightly different than the ones pictured by Roussin, so this post must have had multiple swords commissioned by the manufacturer, W.M. Read and Sons, of Boston, MA.
These seem to be relatively rare, as far as CW sword collecting goes, and thrilled to have this one in my humble collection!
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