Post by George Armstrong Custer on Apr 27, 2005 17:31:02 GMT -6
I mentioned the April 1995 Butterfield & Butterfield sale of Custer memorabilia in the context of the Foote Collection in my earlier post relating to Custer's presentation watch. I have the catalogue to that sale as I bid - highly unsuccessfully! - on lot #6, which was described thus:
'General George A. Custer's Model 1860 Cavalry Saber. Having a 35 inch curved blade, ricasso marked 'U.S. 1864 A.G.M.' The reverse 'C. Roby W. Chelmsford Mass.' Legth overall 431/4 inches. Condition: Guard and blade show minor wear, some flaking to leather grip, wire wrap loose. Metal scabbard with dark patina overall. See illustration. Provenance: Acevedo Collection; Charles A. Custer Family Collection. Estimate: $30,000/40,000.'
My means leaving my own bid miserably short of the lower estimate, needless to say I was not even in the running for this piece. By way of compensation, however, in January this year I was able to purchase at auction in the UK an M1860 cavalry sabre, maker marked 'C. Roby, W. Chelmsford Mass.', and with the ricasso marked 'U.S. 1864 A.G.M.' - in other words an exact duplicate of Custer's weapon, in much better condition and at a fraction of the price. As a result, I have been spurred to carry out some research on these weapons.
Christopher Roby (1814-1897) bought out the firm of agricultural edged tool manufacturers of which he had hitherto been a partner in 1853. Based in the village of West Chelmsford Massachusetts, the resultant firm of C. Roby & Co. flourished , with a high demand for scythes and machetes from the southern and border states. With the advent of the Civil War, a shortage of edged weapons, both North and South became rapidly apparent. Even specialist arms manufacturers such as Ames could not cope with the demands of mobilisation, and resorted to importing German cavalry sabres as a stop-gap. In West Chelmsford, Christopher Roby saw an opening for expansion. In December 1861, he found the Federal government a ready purchaser for a shipment of 410 imported cavalry sabres. By April 1862, military suppliers were advertising 'Chelmsford' swords manufactured in-house by the Roby factory themselves. In 1862, Roby produced bulk orders of the N.C.O.'s and Musician's pattern swords under a government contract signed on 29 August 1862.
By July 1863, the Roby factory was tooled up to also produce the M1860 light cavalry sabre on Federal government contract, at a unit price of $5.75. 3,000 such sabres were delivered by Roby in 1863. In 1864, the year Custer's and my own sabres were made, production was 14,000 at a unit price of $6.50. A final consignment of 15,000 sabres were delivered in 1865 - and only the first 2,000 sabres of this final consignment were delivered in time to have possibly seen service during the Civil War.
The 'A.G.M.' marking stamped on the ricasso of Custer's (and, as far as I can discover, on all 1864 Roby cavalry sabres), was the initials of the U.S. government arsenal quality control inspector Alfred G. Manning. My own sabre also has Manning's single initial 'M' stamped into the top of the pommel, on one of the bars of the guard, on the obverse of the ricasso above Roby's manufacturers marks, and on the drag at the end of the scabbard. Although I cannot tell from the photographs I have seen of it, I assume that these are also all present on Custer's example.
So much for my research to date. What I haven't been able to discover, however, is why Custer obtained a new enlisted man's M1860 sabre in 1864. He is photographed with an M1860 from the early days of the Civil War following his graduation from West Point [for example in the photopgraph from May 1862 on p. 28 of Frost's 'The Custer Album'. So I wonder if anyone has any idea of how many M1860's Custer acquired throughout the Civil War? Custer was promoted Brigadier-General on June 29 1863, so the acquisition of the 1864 Roby was clearly not a consequence of this. Frost shows a clear picture of Custer gripping an M1860 in his gauntleted fist on p.40 of [ibid], and dates it to 'later' in 1863. However, Urwin, in 'Custer Victorious' captions the same photograph as 'May 1864'. If the latter is correct (as I suspect), then the sabre depicted is likely to be the Roby sold by Butterfield's in 1995. One wonders, too, how many of his Civil War sabres Custer retained and took West with him after the War (including, of course, those captured from Confederate officers)? The Memphis studio portrait reproduced in Utley's 'Cavalier in Buckskin' of a dress-uniformed Lt. Col. Custer en route to the Yellowstone in March 1873, clearly shows him wearing an M1860 sabre as opposed to the 'emasculated' M1872. One assumes, then that this is most likely to be one carried in the Civil War. But does anyone have more detail on Custer's sabres? More work (certainly that which has been published) seems to have been devoted to Custer's guns. Of course the 7th's sabres were crated up prior to Little Bighorn. Yet Custer was a man who made his name in the Civil War as a 'beau sabreur', and there was never any question of his sabre rusting in its scabbard as did Stonewall Jackson's! So I do think that a legitimate interst attaches to an inquiry into Custer's sabres.
Ciao,
GAC
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'General George A. Custer's Model 1860 Cavalry Saber. Having a 35 inch curved blade, ricasso marked 'U.S. 1864 A.G.M.' The reverse 'C. Roby W. Chelmsford Mass.' Legth overall 431/4 inches. Condition: Guard and blade show minor wear, some flaking to leather grip, wire wrap loose. Metal scabbard with dark patina overall. See illustration. Provenance: Acevedo Collection; Charles A. Custer Family Collection. Estimate: $30,000/40,000.'
My means leaving my own bid miserably short of the lower estimate, needless to say I was not even in the running for this piece. By way of compensation, however, in January this year I was able to purchase at auction in the UK an M1860 cavalry sabre, maker marked 'C. Roby, W. Chelmsford Mass.', and with the ricasso marked 'U.S. 1864 A.G.M.' - in other words an exact duplicate of Custer's weapon, in much better condition and at a fraction of the price. As a result, I have been spurred to carry out some research on these weapons.
Christopher Roby (1814-1897) bought out the firm of agricultural edged tool manufacturers of which he had hitherto been a partner in 1853. Based in the village of West Chelmsford Massachusetts, the resultant firm of C. Roby & Co. flourished , with a high demand for scythes and machetes from the southern and border states. With the advent of the Civil War, a shortage of edged weapons, both North and South became rapidly apparent. Even specialist arms manufacturers such as Ames could not cope with the demands of mobilisation, and resorted to importing German cavalry sabres as a stop-gap. In West Chelmsford, Christopher Roby saw an opening for expansion. In December 1861, he found the Federal government a ready purchaser for a shipment of 410 imported cavalry sabres. By April 1862, military suppliers were advertising 'Chelmsford' swords manufactured in-house by the Roby factory themselves. In 1862, Roby produced bulk orders of the N.C.O.'s and Musician's pattern swords under a government contract signed on 29 August 1862.
By July 1863, the Roby factory was tooled up to also produce the M1860 light cavalry sabre on Federal government contract, at a unit price of $5.75. 3,000 such sabres were delivered by Roby in 1863. In 1864, the year Custer's and my own sabres were made, production was 14,000 at a unit price of $6.50. A final consignment of 15,000 sabres were delivered in 1865 - and only the first 2,000 sabres of this final consignment were delivered in time to have possibly seen service during the Civil War.
The 'A.G.M.' marking stamped on the ricasso of Custer's (and, as far as I can discover, on all 1864 Roby cavalry sabres), was the initials of the U.S. government arsenal quality control inspector Alfred G. Manning. My own sabre also has Manning's single initial 'M' stamped into the top of the pommel, on one of the bars of the guard, on the obverse of the ricasso above Roby's manufacturers marks, and on the drag at the end of the scabbard. Although I cannot tell from the photographs I have seen of it, I assume that these are also all present on Custer's example.
So much for my research to date. What I haven't been able to discover, however, is why Custer obtained a new enlisted man's M1860 sabre in 1864. He is photographed with an M1860 from the early days of the Civil War following his graduation from West Point [for example in the photopgraph from May 1862 on p. 28 of Frost's 'The Custer Album'. So I wonder if anyone has any idea of how many M1860's Custer acquired throughout the Civil War? Custer was promoted Brigadier-General on June 29 1863, so the acquisition of the 1864 Roby was clearly not a consequence of this. Frost shows a clear picture of Custer gripping an M1860 in his gauntleted fist on p.40 of [ibid], and dates it to 'later' in 1863. However, Urwin, in 'Custer Victorious' captions the same photograph as 'May 1864'. If the latter is correct (as I suspect), then the sabre depicted is likely to be the Roby sold by Butterfield's in 1995. One wonders, too, how many of his Civil War sabres Custer retained and took West with him after the War (including, of course, those captured from Confederate officers)? The Memphis studio portrait reproduced in Utley's 'Cavalier in Buckskin' of a dress-uniformed Lt. Col. Custer en route to the Yellowstone in March 1873, clearly shows him wearing an M1860 sabre as opposed to the 'emasculated' M1872. One assumes, then that this is most likely to be one carried in the Civil War. But does anyone have more detail on Custer's sabres? More work (certainly that which has been published) seems to have been devoted to Custer's guns. Of course the 7th's sabres were crated up prior to Little Bighorn. Yet Custer was a man who made his name in the Civil War as a 'beau sabreur', and there was never any question of his sabre rusting in its scabbard as did Stonewall Jackson's! So I do think that a legitimate interst attaches to an inquiry into Custer's sabres.
Ciao,
GAC
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