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AMES LIGHT CAVALRY SABRE DATED 1860 – PRE-CIVIL
WAR DELIVERY TO THE STATE OF VIRGINIA - A RECENT
DISCOVERY OF AN EXCELLENT SPECIMEN OF A WELL DOCUMENTED
ISSUE OF CONFEDERATE USED SABRES:
Due to the relatively few
surviving specimens being carefully retained in private
collections, seldom do any of these early pre-Civil War
dated Ames sabres appear on the market. Featuring a
particularly desirable combination of date and maker,
this 1860 dated Ames Light Cavalry Sabre holds an
important place in the lineage of US Cavalry Sabres.
Not only does it represent the manufacture of these
sabres prior to the onset of the Civil War, but it is
one of the very rare survivors of the limited number of
1860 dated delivered by Ames to the State of Virginia
prior to the onset of hostilities in 1861.
Heretofore, the story of these Virginia 1860 dated Ames
Light Cavalry Sabres has been a little known footnote in
the history of arming what would become the Confederacy,
but it is now well documented in John Thillmann’s
Civil War Cavalry & Artillery Sabers on pages
80-81.
In March of 1860, Secretary of War John B. Floyd ordered
the Chief of Ordnance, Colonel Henry K. Craig, to
deliver 1,200 sabres to the State of Virginia. Craig’s
subsequent letter which transmitted this order to Major
William A. Thornton at the New York Arsenal survives
today, and in that letter Craig specified that the
sabres were to be obtained from the Ames Sword Company
in Chicopee, Massachusetts.
That federal ordnance supplies were sold to the states
was not unusual; in fact it was a normal practice which
was mandated and closely regulated by federal law under
The Militia Act. What is interesting about this
specific transaction is that the Secretary of War – no
less a native of Blacksburg, Virginia - would direct
such a sale of weapons to a southern state under the
very shadow of the gathering storm clouds of the
impending Civil War.
Of the 5,000 cavalry sabres received by the U.S. Army
from Ames under the contract executed in 1859, 1,200 were
sold to, and delivered to, Virginia. Thillmann
determined that due to the date of the order – March 22,
1860 - for these Virginia sabres, the sabres must have
been manufactured in the March-September period and
therefore the blades would have been dated 1860.
Secretary Floyd held his office at the War Department
from March 6, 1857 until December 29, 1860. After
President Lincoln’s inauguration on March 4, 1861, an
embargo was placed on all arms shipments to the south;
however it is believed that by the time the embargo was
imposed, Floyd certainly had accomplished the sale of
the 1,200 Ames cavalry sabres to Virginia and they had
been delivered.
This particular sabre was discovered in 2018 in the wall
of a residence in Norfolk, Virginia while the house was
being demolished. While no more than that is known of
the discovery, that this 1860 dated Ames was discovered
secreted in an old building in one of the more historic
cities of Virginia is certainly consistent with what we
know of the history of these particular sabres.
Concealing arms such as sabres, pistols and long guns in
walls, attics and basements of homes was not an uncommon
practice by Southern veterans as they sought to prevent
their seizure by occupying Federal soldiers.
This sabre shows evidence of use by a mounted soldier,
so apparently it was issued and carried by a Confederate
soldier for some time, but it was not used to
destruction as so many of these early sabres must have
been during the course of the war. And that it was
secreted in the wall of the Norfolk home indicates that
the soldier who carried it was never put in the position
of having to suffer the ignominy of having to surrender
it.
Norfolk fell to Union forces in May of 1862 and remained
an occupied city for the duration of the war with a
significant federal military and naval presence, so
hiding arms such as this sabre would have been a logical
choice by the city’s population. Whether the sabre was
hidden in the wall at the time Norfolk fell, at the end
of the War, or at some time in between we will never
know, but it survives today as a another interesting
page in the history of arming the Confederacy.
The sabre blade bears a full set of maker and inspector
stamps. The ricasso is stamped with a legible Ames
maker stamp on one side, and an equally legible “US”,
the inspector’s initials “JT” for John Taylor, and the
“1860” date stamp on the other.
The blade has survived in remarkable condition. In full
form, the metal surface is overall very clean and
bright, the ricasso cross polishing is still present,
and there is no pitting on the blade. The edge is clean
with no nicks, and it shows some evidence of sharpening,
more evidence of having been used in the field.
The brass guard has a soft, old patina, showing no signs
of polishing or heavy cleaning. The guard is full form
and shows evidence of this sabre having been carried in
the field. The outer branch is pushed into, and
beneath, the inner branch, perhaps the result of the
guard being caught between the horse and an unyielding
object such as a tree or fence post, or the result of a
horse falling on the sabre. The brass branch is not
cracked or broken and shows no sign of weakness. The
quillon shows the commonly encountered forward curve
which is seen on so many of these field-used sabres.
Apparently, this was an affectation which was preferred
by the soldiers given the frequency which it is seen and
the individual degrees to which the quillons are pushed
forward.
The original leather washer is full form and present on
the face of the guard. The grip leather is original and
overall smooth with a shiny surface and no flaking. The
leather is worn through to the wood grip on the crests
of the three upper ribs, and the exposed wood has an old
patinated shine and blends in well with the black
leather. The original wire wrapping is present, tight,
and complete.
It is of some interest that it has been noted that state
militia sabres are often found without the federal
inspector initials stamped on the pommels where they are
normally found on U.S. Army sabres. As the states had
to pay the cost of these final inspections, paying the
inspectors at the same rate the federal government paid
them, it is possible that this step in the inspection
was omitted as a cost saving measure. The blades were
already inspected by the time they were assembled into
the finished sabre, and the scabbards were inspected as
they were finished, so perhaps the cost of the final
inspection of the assembled saber, which was indicated
by the stamps on the pommel, was considered by the
states to be redundancy which they could live without.
Such is the case with this sabre, as pommel is not
stamped with the “JH” for Joseph Hannis, and “WAT” for
William A. Thornton as would be normal on a federally
owned sabre of this vintage. The absence of the stamps
of these two inspectors further argues for this sabre
being one of those delivered to Virginia prior to the
outbreak of the War.
The scabbard features the expected overall naturally
aged brown one would expect from a sabre which had been
hidden in the wall of a building all these years. The
surface of the metal is lightly and evenly pitted,
though nothing major or disfiguring, mostly concentrated
on the lower end. In spite of the pitting, the
government inspector’s initials, “G.G.S.” for George G.
Saunders, on the drag are fully legible. This is an
added value feature as these inspector stamps are often
worn away or obliterated on sabres of this vintage. The
scabbard retains its full form without any severe
dents. The few dents which are present are shallow
without compromising the shape or integrity of the
scabbard, and are typical of any scabbard that was worn
during the conflict. The scabbard is complete with the
throat and carrying rings, and a full form drag.
This is an excellent example of a very special lot of
pre-war dated Ames Light Cavalry sabres, far above the
norm one encounters on the market today – if one were
able to locate an 1860 dated specimen. The condition of
this sabre coupled with the historical significance of
the date will provide the eventual owner with a great
deal of pride in the ownership of such a piece through
the years.
SOLD
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