gjpratt
Sergeant Major
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2019
- Location
- Central Florida and WNC
I am a LOOONG time lurker who finally decided to register and post. I hope this is the correct place for the post. The tipping point for me was using the information on this board to pinpoint the location where a Confederate officer was mortally wounded at the Battle of Thompson's Station. I grew up in Middle Tennessee. For as long as I can remember I have been fascinated with a sword pictured in one of Wm. Albaugh's Confederate Swords reference book. It is a College Hill officer saber with an inscription to Tennessee soldier A.A. Dysart. Some time ago I spotted an obscure reference in a Confederate Veteran issue to the spot where Dysart was shot and died. At the time of the publication, it was identified as a tree in the yard of a house of a named resident hard by the pike (Nashville-Columbia Pike). The house and family are long gone. But there was enough information here, together with a recent map of the battle, to locate the spot with great accuracy. Most of the information was in threads about Alice Thompson (IIRC).
So now I have another mystery and I am putting it out to the incredible collective wisdom of members here. In a catalog of items on display at a Sanitary Fair in 1864, it lists the "Sword of the Rebel General Turner Ashby," taken by Col. Mix by the 3d NY Cavalry in a skirmish near Winchester March 10, 1862. But I cannot find much if any corroboration of this event. There is no mention of this incident at all in any of the biographies of Ashby. I suppose that it would not be included in any pro-Ashby accounts if true. But I also have to believe that any person or unit that captured such an important war trophy would have proudly boasted about it. If so, I can't find it. There is no report of this skirmish that I can find in the ORs. But the 3d NY Cav was in the vicinity on that date and there is an order on March 9 directing action in the direction of Winchester the next day. There is a Col Mix in the 3d NYC -- actually 2 (brothers I believe). And the 3d NYC was no longer in the Valley in June when Ashby was killed so there is not a possibility of a confused date.
Can anyone shed any more light on this small historical footnote? Any idea if this sword is in a museum somewhere?
So now I have another mystery and I am putting it out to the incredible collective wisdom of members here. In a catalog of items on display at a Sanitary Fair in 1864, it lists the "Sword of the Rebel General Turner Ashby," taken by Col. Mix by the 3d NY Cavalry in a skirmish near Winchester March 10, 1862. But I cannot find much if any corroboration of this event. There is no mention of this incident at all in any of the biographies of Ashby. I suppose that it would not be included in any pro-Ashby accounts if true. But I also have to believe that any person or unit that captured such an important war trophy would have proudly boasted about it. If so, I can't find it. There is no report of this skirmish that I can find in the ORs. But the 3d NY Cav was in the vicinity on that date and there is an order on March 9 directing action in the direction of Winchester the next day. There is a Col Mix in the 3d NYC -- actually 2 (brothers I believe). And the 3d NYC was no longer in the Valley in June when Ashby was killed so there is not a possibility of a confused date.
Can anyone shed any more light on this small historical footnote? Any idea if this sword is in a museum somewhere?
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