This is a good example of the classic Civil War Union cavalry saber made by the Ames Manufacturing Company, the weapon’s foremost producer. The sword is untouched, showing some wear to the leather grip wrap, but with the twisted brass wire binding in place, and secure, and has a blade with smooth metal, showing medium bright, with a good point and edge without nicks. The leather pad is still in place on the underside of the guard and the scabbard is complete with drag, throat, and carrying rings.

The brass hilt has not been polished and shows a muted patina with scattered dark age spots. The pommel shows small inspector initials and no sign of re-peening to the tang to tighten it. The leather grip wrap shows the usual narrow gap along the obverse from age shrinkage, but is complete, brown in tone with scattered losses of the finish that show a reddish brown. No polish or preservatives have been applied.

The blade shows some scattered small dark gray and some thin brown spots, but also some faint traces of the factory cross polishing near the guard. The obverse ricasso is stamped “U.S. / G.W.S. / 1864” indicating the government inspector and its acceptance as well as the date of manufacture. The reverse ricasso has the three line Ames block address known to have been used along with the scroll address at the time: “AMES MFg Co / CHICOPEE / MASS. with a little rubbing to third line. The scabbard is complete with ring mounts, rings, throat and drag with no dents or deep dings. The surface shows as crusty brown with traces of silver gray underneath.

This would be a key piece in any cavalry, edged weapons, or Civil War collection, with many of the large cavalry operations taking place in 1864 and 1865.  [PE] [ph:L]

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