Tiffany Presentation Sword to General James Forsyth

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Historic Firearms and Early Militaria: Premie...

By Cowan's Auctions

Oct 30, 2018

Set Reminder 2018-10-30 10:00:00 2018-10-30 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Historic Firearms and Early Militaria: Premier Auction https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/cowans/historic-firearms-and-early-militaria-premier-auction-3521
Cowan's is honored to present the Magnificent Sword Collection of William Koch in its two-day firearms, militaria, and American history auction, with a focus on the Civil War. Cowan's Auctions dawnie@cowans.com

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• Lot Description
  Tiffany Presentation Sword to General James Forsyth
  
  

  33" double-edged spear point blade with a wide, pronounced median ridge. 7.5" massive gold gilt and sterling silver hilt with 6" cross guard formed by the spread wings of a pair of three-dimensional American Eagles that clutch the striped shield of the goddess Columbia in their talons, forming the languets of the sword. The sterling silver grip depicts a classical solider with a Macedonian helmet, surmounting a panoply of arms topped by a plumed Renaissance helm on the obverse. While the reverse grip is cast with an winged angel with up-stretched arms holding a wreath, standing on a pair of trumpets with a trumpet, wings and a halo of stars above. The oversized gilt brass urn shaped pommel is decorated with spears and arrows around its edge and topped with a silver Medusa's mask as a pommel cap. A heavy, double strand, silver chain serves as the hand guard, connecting the base of the pommel the lower wing of the eagle. The blade is exquisitely acid etched and highlighted with gold gilt over the majority of its length, with the three line retailer mark: TIFFANY / & Co / NEW YORK on the reverse ricasso, concealed by the reverse languet. The reverse of the blade shows flowing foliate sprays and scrolls with the central figure that of a Renaissance era foot soldier with a swallow tail banner on a pike and a broad bladed axe at his belt. The letters US are also present on the reverse, joined by a waving ribbon with stars on it. The obverse is etched with similar foliate motifs and features a Civil War period soldier in frock coat with bayonet-fixed rifle musket in full field dress with pack, forage cap and gaiters, as well as an extensive panoply of arms featuring classical arms and banners. The silver washed and gold gilt metal scabbard has exquisitely cast gilt mounts with oak leaves, laurel leaves and with Columbia's shield of stars and stripes serving as the drag. The upper mount has two suspension rings, while the middle mount has a single ring. Below the throat on the obverse is a ribbon marked TIFFANY & CO over the letter M, indicating the work is that of Tiffany silversmith John C. Moore. The central panel of the scabbard, between the upper mounts is engraved in five script lines: Bvt. Brig. Gen. J.W. Forsyth / U.S.A. / from his sincere Friend / L. Dexter Bradford / Oct. 10th, 1867 . This sword is published in John Thillman's Civil War Army Swords (pages 518-519) and in Thillman's Civil War Cavalry & Artillery Swords (pp446-448). A really outstanding presentation sword that truly shows off the skills and creativity of the Tiffany crafstmen.
  
  James W. Forsyth (1834-1894) was a career soldier whose life of dedicated army service, primarily in staff positions, is barely remembered and then only because of his (adj?) association with the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee. Born in frontier Maumee, Ohio August 8, 1835, Forsyth entered West Point taking five years to graduate with the Class of 1856. Forsyth was commissioned 2nd lieutenant, 9th Infantry, July 1, 1856 and was posted to the Pacific Northwest at Fort Bellingham, Washington and environs between 1856 and 1859, the army presence serving as a deterrent to British claims tied to an ongoing boundary dispute. Just before the start of the war Forsyth was advanced to first lieutenant in March 1861 returning to Ohio as an instructor to a brigade of Ohio volunteer regiments then organizing and drilling and Mansfield. He was advanced to captain, 18th Infantry on October 24, 1861 and took temporary command of the 64th OVI when the regiment was posted to garrison duty at Danville, Kentucky until February 1862. Forsyth was then assigned to staff duty serving in several different positions over the next two years. Initially, he went to the Army of the Potomac as Acting Assistant Adjutant General to the Provost Marshal General while also attached to the staff of General McClellan during the Peninsula and Maryland Campaigns, followed by a very brief stint on the staff of General Mansfield. Captain Forsyth returned to the Headquarters of the Provost Marshall General, Army of the Potomac, serving in that capacity through April 1863. He then transferred to the army of The Cumberland as Acting Assistant Adjutant general of the Regular Brigade during the masterful Tullahoma Campaign and during the epic battle of Chickamauga. For "gallant and meritorious" service at Chickamauga he received his first brevet promotion to major on September 20, 1863. Major Forsyth returned to the east where he took up the assignment as Inspector-General of the Cavalry Corps, AOP, and, significantly, as Chief of Staff to Major general Sheridan from April 10, 1864 with the rank of lieutenant colonel. While serving under General Sheridan, Forsyth participated in the Richmond and Shenandoah Campaigns earning a brevet to lieutenant colonel for the battle of Cedar Creek on October 19, 1864, and same day, brevet brigadier general, US Volunteers. His star hitched to Sheridan, Forsyth amassed a bevy of additional wartime accolades in 1865: colonel, April 4 for "gallantry" at Five Forks; brigadier general, April 9 "for gallant and meritorious service in the field during the war, and another to brigadier general of volunteers same day for "gallantry" at the battles of Opequan, Fisher's Hill and Middleton, culminating with brigadier general, US. Volunteers, May 19, 1865.
  
  Having received a knot of brevets - three to brigadier general - General Forsyth was mustered out of volunteer service on January 15, 1866 and in July 1866 was promoted to regular army major in the 10th Cavalry. His field service resumed in the position of Acting Assistant Inspector- General of the Military Department of the Gulf from September to December 1866 at which point Forsyth - after fours years of uninterrupted campaigned - took two months of leave before returning to duty at the St. Louis headquarters, Department of the Missouri in October 1867, the time of this presentation sword by the unknown L. Dexter Bradford. The volunteer armies demobilized and scattered to their homes after the threat of French intervention in Texas dissipated and the small regular army took over to police the vast expense of Indian territory now teaming with migrants heading west. Forsyth was reappointed aide-de-camp to Lieutenant General Sheridan at headquarters of the Division of the Missouri and later accompanied the General on his junket to Europe as observer in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. The European excursion lasted until March 1873 at which time Forsyth was appointed lieutenant colonel, with the formal title of Military Secretary to Lieutenant General Sheridan from March 17, 1873 through April 1878. During this time Forsyth was engaged in the Sioux Expedition of 1875 as Sheridan's aide-de-camp and was promoted to bird colonel of the 1st Cavalry on April 4, 1878. Colonel Forsyth took the field in command of the 1st Cavalry during the Bannock War from July to September 1878, later serving in command of Fort Walla Walla, Washington Territory until April 1880. He then personally commanded the escort of the territorial governor during the late summer/early fall of 1880. Two summons to duty on the Warren Court of Inquiry had him traveling to New York City twice during 1880. On November 30, 1880, Colonel Forsyth was once more assigned to the Military Division of the Missouri as Inspector of Cavalry for an extended five year period. In July 1885, He took command of Fort Maginnis in the Montana Territory, one of chain of five forts that had been build after the Custer debacle to exercise control in the Department of Dakota. Forsyth then applied for and was granted a leave of absence lasting until July 1886. He had been promoted to the command of the 7th Cavalry on June 11, 1886 and subsequently was commandant at the cavalry post at Fort Riley from September 1887 to November 1890. Here, Colonel Forsyth "developed, organized and authored a system of practical instruction for light artillery and cavalry" than existed through the Great War until horse cavalry was finally rendered obsolete, overtaken by the mechanization of World War Two.
  
  Colonel Forsyth took to the saddle one last time during the brutal winter of 1890-91 for what was then euphemistically described as a "campaign against the Sioux," then encamped in winter quarters on the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Several armed Lakota bands had left the reservation - looking for food or a fight - raising alarm that, in retrospect, was uncalled for given the overriding disparity between the starving, if not completely compliant Indians and superior numbers of 7th Cavalry troopers backed by battery of modern Hotchkiss guns. Colonel Forsyth led the 7th Cavalry and promptly surrounded the Indian camp. On December 29 he ordered his troopers to disarm the Lakota malcontents, at which point (reports vary) gunfire erupted causing the cavalrymen to began indiscriminately shooting unarmed Indians regarding of age and gender. Some of the Lakota men took back confiscated weapons and fired back at the troopers. Some Indians tried to escape the camp by running away but were methodically shot down When it was over "more than 150 men, women, and children of the Lakota had been killed and 51 wounded" while General Nelson Miles believed the death toll to be as high as 300. Once the shooting started the Indians resisted causing 25 soldiers to die with another 39 wounded, some of whom were certainly victims of friendly fire from the Hotchkiss guns. After a raging blizzard General Nelson Miles toured the site and concluded that innocent women and children had been slaughter. He quickly relieved Colonel Forsyth and ordered a Court of Inquiry. The Court found fault with Colonel Forsyth's tactical dispositions at Wounded Knee but the sympathetic board of fellow officers glossed over, whitewashed, he alleged massacre, refusing to render any adverse conclusion that might be detrimental to Forsyth's lengthy career. There was no public outcry over the incident while in some quarters quite the opposite was true. The Secretary of War concurred with the Court and obliged by reinstating Colonel Forsyth to command of the 7th Cavalry. Personal recrimination between Colonel Forsyth and General Miles ensued. From a lasting perspective the massacre of the Lakota at Wounded Knee - the final grisly act of the Plains Indian Wars - still reverberates today much as the divisive My Lai massacre of 1968.
  
  James Forsyth was promoted to brigadier general, US Army, in 1894 and having witnessed the inexorable crush of Manifest Destiny to the Pacific, was assigned to command the Department of California with headquarters at the Presidio in San Francisco, a post he held until May 1897. He was obliged with an honorary end-of-career promotion to major general on May 11,1897, retiring on May 13 after reaching the statutory age requirement with over 40 years of continuous service. Forsyth quietly spent his last few years in Columbus, Ohio and died there on October 24, 1906, aged 72. The general was buried in the local Green Lawn Cemetery, Columbus, Ohio.

  
  
  Provenance: From the Sword Collection of William Koch

  Condition

  Outstanding. Retains most of the original bright polish on the blade as well as the majority of the gold gilt, which is thinning and shows some minor loss. All engraving remains clear and crisp. Hilt very fine with some thinning and loss to the gilding on the eagle's wings. Silver grip and pommel cap with a medium pewter patina. Scabbard fine as well, with strong traces of the silver wash still present and much of the gilding on the mounts. The engraved presentation remains clear and crisp and scabbard shows only some minor surface dings and a small ripple in the metal along the upper edge, a few inches above the drag. A truly spectacular Tiffany presentation sword.
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