Beschreibung:

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 (B