This is an incredibly rare Boyle & Gamble sword pattern, even rarer than the company’s Non-Commissioned Officer Swords.

A musician’s sword you say? Lest you think bands unimportant, no less than General Lee, in 1864, said, "I do not believe we can have an army without music.”[i]

The Federal Ordnance Manual (which was copied by the Confederates almost verbatim) describes the Musician’s sword as: "The same as the non-commissioned officer’s sword, without the guard-plate, and with blade six inches shorter” In the same publication, the non-commissioned officer’s sword is described:

"Blade (straight, cut and thrust). -Back, edge, groove, bevel, point.

Hilt. -Pommel (brass), notch for the hook of the guard, rivet-cap, shoulder for the ferrule, hole for the tang; 2 ferrules: gripe, (sic) wooden body, hole for the tang: covering (sheet brass), grooves and ridges.

Guard (in one piece). -branch, hook and its shoulder: plate, flange, bead: knob.

Scabbard (leather). -Ferrule and hook (brass): tip (brass), body, front branch, back branch.”

Note that it gives no length, so how can the blade length of the Musician’s sword be described as six inches shorter? The only real difference between the NCO and Musician’s sword is that the base of the hilt of the NCO sword has extended "shoulders” and the Musician’s sword does not.

At the beginning of the War, virtually every regiment had a band. In 1861 the Confederacy established regulations authorizing regimental bands having sixteen privates acting as musicians. In fact, I did a cursory search and found that Virginia had more than a thousand.[ii] However, besides Boyle & Gamble, no other Confederate makers produced a musician’s sword and there is such a paucity of Boyle & Gamble Musician’s swords, that I do not believe Confederate musicians carried swords, and I am certain that they did not carry musician’s swords, the swords simply did not exist in numbers to make that possible. Nor can I locate a photo or period drawing/lithograph showing a Confederate musician with a sword. I believe that they carried rifles when on the march and battle. This is excepting drummers and buglers, which were used to give orders in camp and battle. Being a musician in the Confederate Army was only a part time occupation.

The sword’s capture history reading: "Captured by M. Moore Co K 13^th Reg NH Vols.” was cut into the sword’s scabbard, presumably by Moore. Much of it can still be read on the scabbard body, but not all of it. Fortunately, as the surface patent flaked and the information was slowly disappearing, Kevin Hoffman, a well-respected sword collector of many years, who we lost nearly a decade ago, copied the information to the tape and placed it on the throat. Martine Moore enlisted on August 21, 1862, as a musician, which is no doubt why he preserved this musician’s sword.

The 13^th New Hampshire Regiment had six members from company K who were members of the band.[iii] The regiment was organized in Concord, New Hampshire, and mustered in for a three-year enlistment on September 20, 1862, under the command of Colonel Aaron Fletcher Stevens. They served the whole war in the Virginia theatre.

After the War Moore was a member of the Joseph Hooker Camp, G.A.R. in East Boston, Massachusetts. A group of Moore’s G.A.R regalia is included with his sword.

Print Email to a friend