This is an extraordinarily fine example of a rare Confederate foot officer’s sword. This pattern would have been the proper sword to have been carried by officer’s ranking Captain and below.

This is a Burger & Brother design and it was produced by Burger. Based on the use of seven star flags etched onto the blade, this was manufactured after April 17^th, 1861, when Virginia seceded and before Arkansas seceded on May 6^th. Boyle & Gamble later produced a sword with the same hilt, but a different blade that had a rounded spine, rather than this flat spine of Burger and sheathed it in a different scabbard. We don’t know the exact dates for the Burger Brothers/Burger Boyle/ Boyle & Gamble transitions, nor do we know the extent of their comingling, but the flag dates, etching pattern, the flat spine, and the scabbard design characteristics indicate that this is a Burger Brothers rather than the later Boyle & Gamble production. W.J. McElroy of Macon, Georgia also produced a sword with the same guard, but a different pommel.

Afficianados will recognize that this sword’s original scabbard uses the virtually the same scabbard as the later Froelich Staff and Field; this is correct. Froelich’s enlisted cavalry swords and B & G’s cavalry swords also used identical scabbards. This gives us a clue as to who, or at least which city, the scabbards originated in, since when this was made, Froelich was not yet in business. Though the scabbards of both could possibly have been manufactured by a third party in a different location, Richmond is probably where they originated.

This example is the only example of this pattern that I know of to have an etched blade. I think this is because the later and more common Boyle & Gamble examples were not etched. This has several etched seven star Confederate First National Flags, two panoplies of arms and intricate floral patterns for the complete length of the fuller, though the etching is light.

The sword is in excellent condition. There is just enough play in the guard to make a "click”.

The leather and copper wire wrap are tight; the leather has some minor surface flaking and minimal loss. The semi bright blade doesn’t have any nicks, nor has it been sharpened or repointed.

Its original brass mounted scabbard is a thing of beauty. It would be perfect but for the poorly attached thin flat brass top that Burger used, which almost always came off. The throat remains but is missing the flat top. The throat, ring mounts, are brass and the rings are copper. The drag is also made of copper. The scabbard retains nearly one hundred percent of the original japan.

This is the best of the rarest.