This 24 ¼ inch Confederate Short Sword was modeled after the Roman warrior’s sword of ancient times and more recently the artillery swords of the Napoleonic War era. In fact, I have seen war time billing invoices that actually refer to these short swords as "Roman Swords.”

This pattern is commonly referred to as a CS & Star because of the crudely cast CS in the cross guard and star in the pommel.

In the Napoleonic era of warfare, cavalry was used to assault batteries because of its ability to rush upon them between their firings. During the era, short swords similar to the one shown here were issued to foot artillery soldiers, for the express purpose of using them by dropping to their knees and cutting the horses’ legs out from under the enemy’s charging cavalry.

While this may have occurred during the War Between the States, the invention of rifled cannon had made these short quick dashes obsolete, just as the Minnie rifle had made the bayonet charge obsolete (though it took three blood soaked years to recognize it). The forward march of progress had relegated the foot artillery sword to the service of clearing fields of fire and beating recalcitrant swine into submission.

The short sword shown here is a good example of these weapons. The sword’s hilt is as tight as the day it was made. The blade is in good condition; with a very few period nicks and an overall dark but smooth blade. The blade’s tip is totally original and has not been repointed, and the blade has not been cleaned.

The entire sword has an extremely deep and untouched natural patina. When cast, this sword’s hilt had one of the characteristic and desirable casting flaws near the hilt. You can actually look through the casting flaw and see the blade’s tang inside. In the same area as the casting flaw, on both sides of the grip you can see where the metal becomes thin. I expect the metal was cast so thin in these areas that it created the aforementioned casting flaw.