Can anyone point me to a resource for information on Union Officer's swords? I need to know things like- were they issued, or purchased by the soldiers? And was there a standard style, or were they individual to the soldiers? Thanks for any assistance.

Elizabeth George wrote: > > Can anyone point me to a resource for information on Union Officer's > swords? I need to know things like- were they issued, or purchased > by the soldiers? ---------------------------------------- Officers were expected to provide for themselves - the price of being a gentleman. This meant they had to purchase or otherwise get their own uniforms, sidearms, rations, etc. They could get stuff from government stores, but this came out of their pay. ---------------------------------------- > > ...was there a standard style, or were they individual to the soldiers? ---------------------------------------- There were Federal regulation standards, but these weren't always adhered to - there's an awful lot of variation. The type of sword carried also depended on rank and branch of service. As far as a website, couldn't find a whole lot on line. A pretty decent book is "The Commanders" (part of the "Rebels & Yankees" series) by William C. Davis. Dennis

Amoung the enlisted men in the Union army, only cavalrymen, sergents,some artillerymen and musicians were issused swords. nearly all regulation swords carried by union soldiers were patterned on weapons of the French army. Enlisted men's swords were made by private American Firms ---primally the Ames Manufacturing Co, of Chicopee, Massachusetts or purchased abroad. European manufactrers provided the majority of the Officer's blades which were based on an 1850 pattern. Throughout the Civil War grateful groups of citizens and loyal military suborgroups of citizens gave specially made presentation swords to Officers as tokens of recongnition for exceptional service or symbols of general esteem. For the most part, howeveer, these highly ornated, costly andusually impratical swords were worn for formal occasions only. Source:Echoes of Glory Arms and Equipment of the Union Army Time-Life Books Ann ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dennis J. Francis" <fran@ees.eesc.com> To: <CIVIL-WAR-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Friday, October 10, 2003 1:19 AM Subject: Re: [CIVIL-WAR] Swords > Elizabeth George wrote: > > > > Can anyone point me to a resource for information on Union Officer's > > swords? I need to know things like- were they issued, or purchased > > by the soldiers? > ---------------------------------------- > Officers were expected to provide for themselves - the price of being a > gentleman. This meant they had to purchase or otherwise get their own > uniforms, sidearms, rations, etc. They could get stuff from government > stores, but this came out of their pay. > ---------------------------------------- > > > > ...was there a standard style, or were they individual to the soldiers? > ---------------------------------------- > There were Federal regulation standards, but these weren't always > adhered to - there's an awful lot of variation. The type of sword > carried also depended on rank and branch of service. > > As far as a website, couldn't find a whole lot on line. A pretty decent > book is "The Commanders" (part of the "Rebels & Yankees" series) by > William C. Davis. > > Dennis > > > ==== CIVIL-WAR Mailing List ==== > To search our list archives since 1996, go to > http://searches2.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl > and enter Civil-War in the list name > >