The D-Guard knife shown here is exceptional in that it is totally untouched, just as the Confederate who carried last saw it, but with a lovely, natural aged patina. The blade is perfectly smooth, without nick (there is one tiny dent) and almost without scratch. It is huge, twenty one and a half inches from pommel to point. The grip and guard are perfectly tight and they retain much of their original black paint. It is well shaped, is aesthetically pleasing, and it is maker identified as being one of those made by Rufus Hughes for the Milledgeville Arsenal.[i]

Early in the War the state of Georgia took over the old penitentiary in Milledgeville and turned it into an armory. There they produced muskets, bayonets, swords and knives, though it was a very limited production. In the fall of 1864, the armory was burned by the 3rd Wisconsin Infantry under Sherman’s direction. Though this knife and scabbard have long been recognized as Confederate Armory products because of its form and the materials used in its construction, only recently were they positively identified as having come from the Georgia Armory at Milledgeville. A very nice example of this pattern was brought into the Antiques Road Show by the descendants of one of Sherman’s men. The Yankee had pasted a label to the scabbard that told of the knife’s history. The inked label reported that particular knife and hundreds like it were taken from the Milledgeville Armory.

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