2: A MISSOURI CIVIL WAR PRESENTATION SWORD DATED 1862

The high quality US Model 1850 sword with nickel scabbard having engraved brass furniture and hand engraved dedication that reads, 'PRESENTED TO Lieut Col. John F. Tyler BY THE Essex Guards St. Louis, Sept 28/ '62'; while the sword bears stamped maker's mark of COLLINS & CO HARTFORD CONN with date of 1862 on the ricasso just below the original felt washer. The sword's ornate brass hilt features a deep guard and knucklebow with openwork casting of foliate scrolls and an American eagle with federal shield near a laurel wreath in bas relief, the ray or shark skin wrapped handle is bound by twisted wire encircling the slightly swollen form and held in place by an original wood peg, the pommel with pronounced knob is further adorned with a cast laurel wreath in bas relief.

John F Tyler was educated at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington. He graduated in 1859 and moved to a different town named Lexington in Missouri that same year. He was working as a teacher and studying law in Lexington at the outbreak of the American Civil War when his union sympathies put him in an untenable position for the politics of that town and he was forced to enter the army. He enlisted with the 14th Missouri Volunteers but was captured with Mulligan's Command in Lexington before he could muster into service. He was later exchanged and eventually promoted to Colonel of the First Regiment of Infantry of the Missouri State Militia. He remained in the service until near the end of the war when he moved to Saint Joseph, Missouri where he engaged in farming, law and real estate.
Measures 39 inches long overall.
Very good original condition, there are no issues of damage, abuse, alteration or repair, light wear at some edges and a few scattered light scratches on the scabbard.
$1,500 - $3,000