Model 1850 Foot Officer's Sword

Origins

In the 1840s the United States Army modeled most of its swords on French patterns. The dragoon saber of 1840 and the artillery and non-commissioned officers' swords of the same years all followed French designs, as did the later Model 1860 Light Cavalry Saber. Infantry officers still carried a light, straight sword of an older style. In 1850 the War Department approved a new pattern, and it appeared in the uniform regulations of 1851. It was based closely on the sword carried by French infantry officers since 1845.

There were two versions. The Foot Officer's Sword was for company officers, the captains and lieutenants who led infantry and other troops on foot. The Staff and Field Officer's Sword was for majors, colonels and staff officers, who were mounted. It was the same sword with an extra branch on the guard and the letters "US" worked into the brass.

Design & Construction

The blade was slightly curved and single-edged, about 30 to 32 inches long, with a fuller running along each side. Most blades were etched for part of their length with scrolls, an eagle, military trophies and the letters "U.S." The guard was cast brass, usually gilded. A single knuckle-bow swept out into a half basket pierced with floral scrolls. The grip was wood covered with sharkskin or ray skin, or with leather on cheaper swords, and bound with twisted brass wire. The scabbard was normally black leather with brass mounts, though some were made of metal.

Officers bought their own swords, so quality varied from plain service weapons to richly decorated presentation pieces given by towns, friends or the men of a regiment. The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts, was the best-known American maker. Many swords, or their blades, were imported from Solingen in Germany and sold by military outfitters such as Horstmann of Philadelphia and Schuyler, Hartley and Graham and Tiffany and Company of New York.

Combat Use

The Model 1850 was the sword of the junior infantry officer in the American Civil War. Its main use was to lead. An officer in front of his company used it to point the direction of an advance, to signal and to rally men in smoke and noise where a voice did not carry. It could cut and thrust, but sword wounds were rare in that war. An officer's real weapon at close quarters was a revolver such as the Colt 1860 Army. The sword also marked its owner as an officer, and officers who led from the front with drawn swords were hit in large numbers.

Confederate officers used the same pattern. Some had swords from before the war, some carried captured or imported ones, and southern makers such as Boyle and Gamble of Richmond produced their own versions, often with "CS" in the guard.

At the Second Battle of Fort Wagner on 18 July 1863 the officers of the 54th Massachusetts led their men across the beach with swords drawn, and Colonel Robert Gould Shaw was killed on the parapet with his sword in his hand. Shaw's own sword was not a regulation pattern. It was an English officer's sword made by Wilkinson of London, a gift from his family. It was taken from his body, recovered in 1865, lost again, and found in a family attic in 2017. It is now held by the Massachusetts Historical Society.

Legacy

In 1860 the Army approved a lighter, straight Staff and Field Officer's Sword as an alternative. In 1872 that sword became regulation for all officers, and the Model 1850 was retired. It remains the sword most closely linked with the Union infantry officer, and original examples, especially inscribed presentation swords, are widely collected. It is one of the best-known American Swords of the nineteenth century.