This original Model 1850 Staff and Field Officer’s sword is complete with the original metal scabbard. This quality steel edged weapon was carried by Captain John E. Rastall of the 1^st Maryland Eastern Shore Regiment.

The drawn sword measures a total length of 37.25 inches from point to pommel.  The steel blade is 31.50 inches long with a 17.50 inch narrow fuller and a 22.50 inch wide stopped fuller. The blade surface is wonderfully clean and bright throughout with minor mottling on both sides near the point with the same area having minute pin-prick pitting. The true edge has no nicks and is clean. The both ricassos are blank. The blade surface is embellished via the acid etching process. The etching would not classify as “frosty” but is very strong and distinct. The etching on the obverse side of the blade begins just above the ricasso with a geometric design flanked by oak leaves with a linear top. The top bar acts as the horizon for a rising sun. The rest of the blade etching on this side is a foliate decoration intermixed with a patriotic shield, a spread-winged eagle surmounted by stars and a panoply of flags. The reverse etching also begins just above the ricasso with a palm branch. Three lines separate this branch from the etched maker’s name “C. ROBY & CO. / W. CHELMSFORD / MASS.” Like the opposite side foliate fills the etched area with a drum and panoply of flags, a bunch of grapes on a vine, “US” in Gothic letters and above that a riband passing through grapevines. The riband reads “PRESERVE THE GOVERNMENT.”

The sword has a highly detailed, two-line, cutout brass hilt with the guard and knucklebow cast in one piece.  Upper line of brass hilt features prominent letters “US” surrounded by finely case foliate. Bottom line has an intricate, foliate cutout design. Quillon is the standard scroll. The grip is covered in gray shark or ray skin with several courses of dead bullion wire outlined with straight plain brass wire. Grip shows only light wear just under the pommel cap. Wire is tight. Grip has darkened with age and handling. Phrygian pommel cap is border-engraved with an oak leave floral pattern. Knucklebow and guard is tight.

The very fine, bright, smooth undented steel scabbard has plain brass throat, mounts and drag. Both suspension rings are present and are attached by mount rings that are engraved with oak leaves on the upper surface. The top mount is maker marked on reverse “C. ROBY & CO. / W. CHELMSFORD, MASS.” The top of the uppermost mount is engraved “A TOKEN OF ESTEEM TO CAPT. JOHN E. RASTALL BY HIS FRIENDS MILWAUKIE, WISC. 1862.” Engraving is worn and faint but readable. A previous owner has attached a paper label to the scabbard with the text of the presentation. All the brass on the sword has a uniform light and pleasing patina.

With the sword are two letters written by Captain Rastall. The first is dated June 15, 1864 and is written from Camp Carroll, Maryland. It is four pages long, written in ink in a clear hand and comes with the cover. In the body of the letter Rastall describes the camp he was in at the time which was located on the south side of Baltimore. He discusses going to the opera and talks about the weather. He then talks about a friend or relative who is in the Army and how the defeat of Sturgis in the south may cause his regiment to go there. He says “One thing I advise him to do never straggle in the march, but sacrifice his knapsack and everything but his gun first. One more thing. Never go hungry when there is anything to eat within reach or range.”

The second letter is shorter. It is dated September 12, 1864 and written from Fort Dix, Relay House, Maryland. It is one page in ink. He says he is glad to get a Milwaukie paper and then lambasts 100 days men. He says “I see how it is. The paper dare not say how the rascals run. The idea! Rebels going into the city of Memphis – smack up to the General Hd. Qtrs! Why they should blush with shame, after all this to let rebs get off unscathed. Its no use tell Ben the “hundred days” men are of no account!!!”

Also in the group are 25 letter covers dating from 1862-1864 but none of them contain letters.

A University of Maryland biography of Rastall reads;

John Edward Rastall was born on July 23, 1840 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. He had four brothers: Samuel, James, Richard (Dick), and Benjamin. The family immigrated to Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1852 or 1853, where young Rastall learned printing through working at the Milwaukee Sentinel and at the Beloit Herald in Beloit, Wisconsin. Only a few years later, he was one of a group of Wisconsin abolitionists headed by E. G. Ross who went south to join the Free State Army in Kansas. Rastall made raids on slave-holding villages with riders led by Jim Lane and John Brown. He was captured by federal troops but escaped and made his way back to Milwaukee, where he worked at the Sentinel until the Civil War broke out in 1861. He enlisted immediately as a private in the Fifth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, Company B. In September 1861 he was discharged from the Fifth Wisconsin to accept a commission as a first lieutenant and adjutant of the newly organized First Maryland Eastern Shore Volunteers. He served with the First Maryland Eastern Shore from September 1861 to October 1864. The regiment spent time at Salisbury, Point of Rocks, and Cambridge, Maryland, as well as at Fort McHenry and other sites around Baltimore. They saw action at the battle of Gettysburg. As adjutant, Rastall assisted Colonel James Wallace and later Colonel John R. Keene with administrative and clerical duties, and he officiated at court-martial proceedings.

After the war, Rastall spent several years dividing his time between farming in Manistee, Michigan and printing in Milwaukee. In 1867 he married Miss Fannie Hawley, the daughter of a Milwaukee dry-goods merchant. In the early 1870s he returned to Kansas with his wife. From 1876 to 1877 he published the Junction City Union in Junction City, Davis County. In 1877 the couple settled in Burlingame, Osage County, where they remained for many years while Rastall published the Osage County Chronicle. Beginning in 1881, Rastall served in the Kansas state legislature. Fannie Rastall was also active in the community and used her influential position in the local chapter of the Women's Christian Temperance Union to help establish an Industrial School for Girls in Beloit, Kansas.

Rastall later moved to Washington, D. C., where he worked in the United States Government Printing Office until his retirement, probably in the late 1910s. Fannie died in Manchester, Vermont in 1920. Rastall returned to Wisconsin for medical treatment at the Wisconsin Veterans' Home in King in 1923 but resided in Washington until his death in 1927.

This is a wonderful chance to own a museum quality item with a spectacular history. There is no doubt that further digging into the pre-war history of Rastall will reveal more interesting facts about the man who carried this weapon through the Civil War.

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