Intended to impress the enemy with the bearer’s willingness to bring the fight to close quarters, these side knives are quintessentially Confederate and form a collecting field of their own. They show up in many early war Confederate photographs and are excavated from campsites and battlefields. Knives for personal defense were common throughout the south before the war, popularized by tales of Jim Bowie and bloody duels. The war ignited a massive output of larger fighting knives across the Confederacy that symbolized the public determination to fight to the end and certainly added to a soldier’s warlike appearance.

This one is close enough in form to those produced for the Georgia Arsenal to merit an attribution to one of those makers or imitators if not supplied to or accepted by the arsenal itself. Cutlers, gunsmiths, blacksmiths, metal shops and others had likely been supplying knives to militia companies and volunteers for a while, but something of a cottage industry producing these sprung up in response to Georgia Governor Brown’s 1862 call for the production of knives and pikes. This one measures 24-1/2” overall and the blade is 19-1/4” long, generally conforming to those produced in response. The hilt is similar to the Type-5 hilts of those knives- the wood grip rather crudely fashioned, likely with a drawknife, having a slight swell in the middle, and made of smooth wood and without any ferrule at the guard. We note, however, that the iron guard is somewhat cruder than those on the GA Arsenal knives. And, it has the expansion to a round disk to form the pommel cap, on which the blade tang is peened, but the bends to form the curve of the knucklebow are somewhat uneven and the turn upward to form the counterguard is more gradual, rounded, and less pronounced than seen on those accepted by the Arsenal. We note also the tip of quillon slants forward and is pinched, but not pinched in line with the blade, forming more of a blunt roll. The blade length is good, and the use of a shallow clip point, about 2-1/2” long, also follows the general style, but the blade itself shows a rather uniform taper toward the point rather than more typical parallel edges for most of its length.

The condition is good. The wood grips show a period personal touch- an incised spiral groove angling downward that is crossed by a second, groove, making broader turns and producing an “X” where it crosses the first. The wood has good color and finish, with some old scratches and chips worn smooth and darkened by handling. The guard and blade are generally a gray with some blue tones. The blade is flat and generally smooth metal for two-thirds of its length but showing some edge nicks top and bottom along the lower third, with some shallow pitting and corrosion (and perhaps some forging flaws,) showing some thin brown tones and missing a very short bit of the tip, perhaps an eighth or quarter inch. On the whole, however, it shows off very well.

A typewritten label is glued on the reverse of the blade near the hilt reading, “Homespun Confederate D-Gaurd [sic] Bowie Knife Authenticated by exposition official -1993 Civil War Show Valley Forge PA.” We have left the tag in place, though the knife is far from being homemade, let alone “homespun” and we have no idea who the “exposition official was,” though perhaps a few of the now “old-timers” might remember the occasion and the parties involved. The label has the ring of someone bringing a family heirloom in for authentication. If so, it was likely brought back as a war souvenir by a Pennsylvania soldier. For these and similar knives, their major types and sub-types, see in particular, Phillips, Confederate Bowie Knives of the Georgia State Arsenal, and Melton, Phillips & Sexton, Confederate Bowie Knives. This is a good, “dead-real” Confederate D-guard Bowie.  [sr][ph:L]

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