This sword by J.C. Wilson of Houston, Texas, uses the same hilt as one his foot officer’s swords with blade etching to an officer of the 10^th Arkansas pictured in Hartzler, Confederate Presentation & Inscribed Swords & Revolvers, with a description by Albaugh. Wilson ran the “Sword Factory” on Main Street in Houston and seems to have been the only private concern in the state making swords. His products are rare, even by Confederate standards. He produced several styles, few of which are signed, but have identifiable characteristics.

In this case the brass hilt is cast with the guard, knucklebow and simple dome pommel in one piece. The asymmetrical oval counterguard has a narrow quillon with disk finial and has flat contours. The obverse side is noticeably narrower, making room for a typically Wilson complex of side branches forming almost a basket hilt. As with the Arkansas etched sword the grip is somewhat cylindrical with a very slight curve, but here has a russet leather grip wrap and is bound with a more tightly twisted brass wire and a few more turns. The hilt has a nice, untouched, aged brass tone. The wrap is very good, with nice color and surface showing just a few abrasions, mostly on the reverse where one’s fingertips would touch it. The wire is complete and in place. The blade is lightly curved, has no ricasso, and uses a single wide unstopped fuller that extends from under the guard. The surface is a muted silver-gray with darker gray spots and generally smooth metal showing only some shallow pitting near the tip.

The hilt and fanciful handling of the branches is typically Wilson. The knucklebow forms a rounded-D and has no slot for a sword knot. Kevin Hoffman pictures this sword in his “Swords of Honor and Regulation,” describing the guard as having, “3 branches connected by a 4th running in a loop from the outer branch, connecting to the other two branches and back to the outer branch.” Another way of thinking about it is that the knucklebow is given two side branches, the inner one of which splits in the three with the center continuing up to join the outer branch at the upper counterguard, one of the forks joining the outer branch midway up and the other forking off to hit the counterguard midway up. This last branch is then given a lower extension in the same arc, which curves back to join the outer branch lower down. Descriptions the design may vary, but it is worth noting Wilson used a similar pattern elsewhere, just omitting that last leg. For some reason Albaugh described this pattern as ‘producing four pierced areas,” when it plainly creates five.

Little is known about J.C. Wilson, other than he claimed to have another business needing his attention and wanted to get out of sword making in Fall 1862. The other business may have been his arsenal (armory) on the Buffalo Bayou in Houston, which gave the area the name “Arsenal Bend,” and is recorded as producing percussion caps. That location is said to be near the intersection of Milam and Franklin Streets, which may place it at or near his Sword Factory on Main Street (parallel to and separated only by one street from Milam.) In any case, he advertised the sword operation for sale in a Houston paper Sept. 3, 1862: “Sword factory for sale. The subscriber having engaged in other business offers for sale his Sword Manufactory, together with a good stock of material and work (finished and unfinished.) The Blacksmith and Finish shops are well stocked with tools, patterns, &c and the whole business is in successful operation. J.C. Wilson Main Street.”

It may be that the fall of New Orleans and increasing pressure of the blockade was affecting his trade. His Arkansas officer’s sword seems clearly etched by Louis Bissonnet of Mobile, indicating Wilson had been aiming for a broad market. (Here we note the two men may have had earlier Texas connections: Bissonnet was working as jeweler in Hardin Texas in 1860, about fifty miles from Houston, and by 1870 had returned from Mobile and was living in Houston itself.) In any case, Wilson does not seem to have found a buyer. In November 1863 he was still at the “Sword Factory,” and may have been making swords, but he was advertising for sale needles for different types of sewing machines. His postwar career is still as much of a blank as the rest of his life, though we note a “J.C. Wilson & Co.” in business as a carriage maker on Main Street in Houston by 1869.

This is a rare Confederate saber in very good condition with a great Texas connection to boot.  [sr]  [ph:L]

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