GETTYSBURG RELIC CONFEDERATE D-GUARD BOWIE FROM THE FIRST DAY’S FIELD

$1,295.00 SOLD

Quantity Available: None

Item Code: 2022-828

This Confederate D-guard Bowie knife was recovered near the old Boyd’s Schoolhouse here in Gettysburg and first came out in a local auction in 1980. Built in 1837 and rebuilt in 1910, the schoolhouse is located near the intersection of Boyd School Road and Biglerville Road, formerly Newville Road, and is currently a dental office. At the time of the battle the latter road ran along the left flank of Ewell’s advance on Gettysburg from the northwest and was held by Rodes’s Division and Doles’s brigade of four Georgia regiments in particular. These regiments straddled the road and gradually crossed it to the east to counter the build up of Union forces in that direction and hook up with the expected arrival of Early’s troops from the northeast. Doles skirmished with Union cavalry, aided Gordon’s attack upon Barlow, and joined Ramseur’s attack on the Union First Corps, losing 241 in killed, wounded and missing out of 1369, a loss regarded as fairly light given the fighting and credited to his deft handling of the brigade. Given the find location, there is a very good chance this was lost by one his men.

The knife shows nice proportions with a classic D-guard knuckebow formed of a single strip of flat wrought iron curving up to form a guard slotted for the blade and continuing up in an s-curve to form a flat quillon with rounded tip. The grip and any grip ferrule are long gone, but the tang is close to full length, the knucklebow having been broken near the pommel and thus loosening the grip. The knife measures 16 ½ inches overall. The blade is slightly oval in cross section, double edged, with slightly rounded shoulders, and measures 12 inches, very close to full length- there is not much missing from the spearpoint tip.

The iron shows pitting and expected corrosion overall, but is solid and displays very nicely. A black coating was applied as preservative, but it still shows a forging flaw near the guard that is common on so many southern produced edge weapons. D-guard Bowies and side-knives were regarded as quintessentially southern weapon both by the early war volunteers who carried them into service and the veterans who later sought them out as war souvenirs. This one is in good, excavated condition and has a legitimate provenance to the most famous battlefield of the Civil War.  [sr] [ph:m]

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