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THBCivil War Clauberg Presentation Sword to Gallant US Regular Artilleryman Lieutenant Francis S. French
About Seller
6270 Este Ave.
Cincinnati , OH 45232
United States
With offices in Cincinnati, Cleveland and Denver, Cowan’s holds over 40 auctions each year, with annual sales exceeding $16M. We reach buyers around the globe, and take pride in our reputation for integrity, customer service and great results. A full-service house, Cowan’s Auctions specializes in Am...Read more
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About Auction
LiveMay 3, 2017 - May 5, 2017
Cowan's Auctions dawnie@cowans.com
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- Lot Description
32" blade with gilt etched panels, gilt and highly polished blade. One panel reads For The Union and the Constitution and on the reverse, eagle and E. Pluribus Unum and U.S. Marked on the ricasso Clauberg. Fluted silver handle, deeply relief guard with eagle, deeply chased pommel with Lady Liberty. Curled eagle head on the guard with ruby eyes. Scabbard of white brass with deep relief carvings of Lady Liberty and on the drag has a deep relief allegoric figure. Engraved presentation: Presented To First Lieut F. S. French by the Privates of Light Artillery as a token of their respect & esteem. The top of the pommel has battle honors engraved.
A singular presentation piece given to a heroic but tragic young officer "by the Privates/of Light Co. I, 1st U.S. Artillery/as a token of their esteem," undated but end of war after the three brevets--Fair Oaks/Antietam/Cold Harbor--engraved on the base of the pommel cap. The blade bears the patriotic exhortation "For the Union and Constitution" etched in the reflection of nearly four years of bloody retrospection. Lieutenant French's sword together with his father's Mexican War-era presentation sword were featured in an article written for North South Trader's Civil War, Vol. XXIV, No. 3 in 1997.
Just after the outbreak of war, young Francis Sands French (1842-1865) was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in the regular army on September 27,1861. He was the son of Major General William H. French and joined Battery I, 1st U.S. Artillery, his father's old regiment. Under the younger French's command the battery became an Army of the Potomac mainstay, a combat unit of the 2nd Corps and Horse Artillery that forged a wartime record second to none. Over the course of his illustrious service Lieutenant French was engaged in no less than fourteen major battles and twenty lesser skirmishes, being present at Lee's surrender at Appomattox. In June 1865 French was simultaneously brevetted three times for "gallantry:" to Captain for Fair Oaks, Major for Fredericksburg, and Lieutenant Colonel for Cold Harbor.
In his first engagement then 2nd Lieutenant French became an early casualty, being "dangerously" wounded at the Ball's Bluff debacle on October 21, 1861. There, Brigadier General Charles P. Stone was in overall command of what started out to be a reconnaissance across the Potomac opposite Leesburg, Virginia. A small patrol paddled over at dusk and quickly moved inland. In the gathering gloom the inexperienced captain in command mistook a line of trees as the pitched tents of a Confederate encampment thought to be near Leesburg. Erroneously, word went back that the Rebels had been located, and in response General Stone ordered Colonel Charles Devens of the 15th Massachusetts across with 300 men to attack the camp at first light. At dawn the Union force discovered that "there was no camp to raid." Contradictory to orders, Devens maintained his position on the opposite shore and sent a messenger back to General Stone for new instructions. Stone immediately sent the rest Devens' regiment over as reinforcements with a directive to scout toward Leesburg. It followed that Colonel Edmund Baker, a prominent orator and close friend of the President, appeared at General Stone's headquarters. Stone told the untried politician turned colonel to proceed to the crossing point and assess the situation, giving Baker discretion to either pull the 15th Massachusetts back, or reinforce and press the reconnaissance to Leesburg as Baker saw fit.
Learning from another messenger that Colonel Devens had become engaged with a body of Confederates, Colonel Baker quickly ordered all of the troops he could gather across the Potomac. A lack of boats meant that the Federals were delivered to the opposite shore piecemeal and presaged disaster. In the meantime Devens advanced force now numbering about 650 men exchanged desultory fire with a growing body of Rebels. By midday Devens finally withdrew and met Baker's static force near the (Ball's) bluff where the Union reinforcements had slowly deployed. The terrain was not advantageous being a confined flat field flanked by a deep ravine on the left bordered by wooded hills rising to command the whole of the open space. The only artillery present was a single gun from a Rhode Island Battery with a section of "two mountain howitzers, under Lieutenant French, ...posted in front of the angle" formed by two regiments near the precipice of the steep ravine. To a trained eye the position was indefensible, but Colonel Baker was not a soldier despite his rank. By 3:00pm enemy skirmishers had capitalized by pouring deadly fire from the edge of the nearby woods into the exposed artillerymen who were quickly shot down. Colonel Baker was killed at around 4:30 while forlornly working one of the guns with members of his staff. By then Lieutenant French "and all of the men under his command had either been killed or wounded."
The brief report from the Official Records dated October 25, 1861 glossed over the disastrous outcome recording that "the gallantry and discipline displayed there (Ball's Bluff) deserved a more fortunate result; but situated as these troops were--cut off from retreat and reinforcements, and attacked by an overwhelming force, 500 against 1,700--it was not possible that the issue could have been successful." In fact, Colonel Baker's piecemeal force counting some 1,700 men had been completely routed, many of the Federals having been driven down the steep slope of the ravine into the Potomac. Boats full of panicked men "swamped and capsized." Many soldiers drowned and were carried down river by the current. By nightfall, 223 men had been killed, 226 wounded, and another 553 captured on the banks of the river. It is not recorded how the badly wounded Lieutenant French escaped the enveloping Southern onslaught.
By the following spring Lieutenant French had returned to active duty, but before his wound had properly healed. He would persevere and serve with distinction for the duration seeing uninterrupted action at Fair Oaks, Savage Station, Glendale and White Oak Swamp, Malvern Hill, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, and the Appomattox Campaign alluding to just the most resounding of the Army of the Potomac's major engagements. Captain French was cited in official reports on three separate occasions--Fair Oaks, Antietam, and Cold Harbor-- coinciding with his three post-war brevets awarded in August 1865, a cluster of promotions peculiar to the Regular Army. There was no doubt that his premature death at the young age 25 on September 4, 1865 was aggravated by the rigors of constant campaigning. Reflecting the social norms of the time, the late brevet Lieutenant Colonel French's florid obituary proclaimed, "But, alas, a career which gave such brilliant promise for still greater distinction, to be won in the profession of his choice, has been thus early closed by the hand of death. The seeds of that fatal malady, consumption--quickened doubtless, by the hardships endured in more than three years of such severe military service--soon after the close of the war, were so rapidly developed, that he knew his end to be fast coming, and he came to the birthplace of his mother, the home of her youth (New Castle Delaware), and where he had many friends to mourn his fate."
Strictly uncommon to a regular artilleryman, French's sword is accompanied by a thick binder of research highlighted by excerpts from the Official Records, a copy of the previously mentioned North South Trader's Civil War magazine, and relevant information pertaining to the gallant exploits that defined his short life.
Sword is excellent condition. Blade still retains most of the original gilt. The tip still retains most of the original polish with some surface staining. Handle is excellent. Scabbard has a dent just below the last carrying ring. Some cleaning near the drag on the left side. Overall this is an excellent Civil War presentation sword.Condition
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