USMC M1859 Sergeants' Swords Etched Blades

[reschenk]

I believe Mark Cloke is planning to post my study of the M1859 Marine sergeant’s sword on his “Old Swords” site. it is a revision of my article first published in the October 2018 edition of “Man-at-Arms” magazine. It includes additional information developed since that time, but the most significant change is a re-evaluation of when the Marines first added the initials “U.S.M.C.” to the blades of their sergeants’ swords. The conventional thought is the change was made in 1875; my analysis of the data suggests a much earlier date, perhaps as early as Bent and Bush contract of 1862. Below is my analysis of the issue. I would really appreciate your critique of my rationale and any relevant information you might have. Hopefully if we can get a dialogue started, we can clarify the chronology of these and related issues. I apologize if this post is a bit long-winded.

The conventional wisdom among collectors is that the uniform regulations adopted in 1875 directed the etching of the initials “U.S.M.C.” on the blades of the M1859 sergeants’ swords. In fact, the 1875 regulation had no such requirement. It did describe the new officers’ M1875 mameluke in great detail, including the requirement that the blade be etched with the words “UNITED STATES MARINES”. However, the only thing it said about the design of enlisted swords js that “For patterns of belts, complete, and swords, see patterns in the Quartermaster’s Office, Headquarters.” It is possible more detailed guidance was provided in some other document, but despite a thorough search of USMC Quartermaster records held in the National Archives. no such document was found. If anyone is aware of such a document, the author would appreciate the details.

I suspect the adoption of etched blades predate the Uniform Regulation of 1875. The primary reason is that there are so few unetched swords compared to etched-bladed examples. Given that between 1859 and 1872 a total of about 720 sergeants’ swords were produced, which is more than the combined total of all sergeants’ swords produced for the rest of the century, one would expect to see a much higher percentage of unetched blades. However, at least 80% of the wide-bladed M1859 sergeants’ swords found on the market today are etched. A related fact is that so many are found with the Weyersberg king’s head mark. This would imply they were made before 1883 when Weyersberg merged with Kirschbaum, another Solingen sword-making company, to form WKC. Given the relatively small number of sergeants’ swords made between 1875 and 1883 (about 90), this would suggest an improbably high survival rate of these relative to those with no Weyersberg stamps.

An alternative explanation for the scarcity of unetched blades is that at some point the Marines retro-etched their old blades, but I have found no evidence in the Quartermaster’s files to suggest this. My theory, therefore, is that the Marines adopted etched blades for sergeants’ swords at a much earlier date, perhaps as early as 1862 when Bent and Bush took over the contract from Horstmann.

 

[SgtMaddoxUSMC]

Pretty awesome stuff!  I'd love to get a hold of one of these someday for the collection!  Definitely following this thread