This sword was presented in September 1862 to a field officer who had very active field service from 1863 though 1865, including mention in the official reports as acting as aide-de-camp in the field to Gen. A.S. Williams as division commander at Chancellorsville and corps commander at Gettysburg, and later service as regimental commander in the Atlanta Campaign, March to the Sea, and Campaign of the Carolinas, for which he wrote many of the official reports. When recommended for a March 1865 brevet to Colonel he was noted as having, “commanded the regiment longer than any field officer connected with it.”

The sword and scabbard are both missing the last three inches from the tip, a break which appears very clean, snapping it off, requiring some force, though the occasion is not recorded. Nevertheless, the inscription is strong and the sword is the pattern he would have carried by regulation throughout his service, rising from major to lt. colonel and brevet full colonel, all ranks at which he would have carried a M1850 Staff and Field Officer’s Sword.

The regiment had a strong combat record in the 12^th and 20^th Corps in the eastern and western theatres, losing 4 officers and 76 enlisted men in killed and wounded alone at 44 different points in time according to CWData’s chart, and was credited with the following battle honors, with the regimental history noting Buckingham was in all of them except Tracy City, TN:

Chancellorsville, Va., May 3, 1863.

Gettysburg, Pa., July 3, 1863.

Tracy City, Tenn., Jan. 20, 1864.

Boyd's Trail, Tenn., May 9, 1864.

Resaca, Ga., May 15, 1864.

Cassville, Ga., May 19, 1864.

Peach-Tree Creek, Ga., July 20, 1864.

Siege of Atlanta, Ga., July 21 to Aug. 7, 1864.

Silver Run, N. C., Mch. 15, 1865.

Bentonville, N. C., Mch. 19, 1865.

Raleigh, N. C., Apr. 13, 1865.

The sword certainly saw field use and rates good for condition taking into account the missing tip of blade and scabbard. It follows the standard configuration for the M1850 staff and field with brass hilt having an openwork guard with floral motifs and floating “U.S.” with a nice, untouched patina. The brim of the pommel cap shows some wear. The engraving is excellent. The sharkskin wrap of the grip is intact, showing only minor wear,  but the wire binding is missing. The quillon is slightly bent forward. The blade etching shows is fully visible on both sides, though showing lighter, with more wear on the upper reverse. The obverse has tall, crossed US flags on staffs with the motto “Stand by the Union” along the edge of the staffs, floral scrolls, an American eagle clutching a bundle of arrows and draped olive branch with “E Pluribus Unum” dry needle etched in a ribbon scroll above, and is topped by a large Liberty Cap in a sunburst, with the panel ending in an arabesque point. The reverse has the SCHUYLER / HARTLEY / & GRAHAM / NEW YORK address etched on the ricasso, with similar blade designs above, but including a foliate entwined “U.S.” set vertically on the blade. The scabbard is regulation steel with brass mounts. The body is a mix of blue and brown with a slightly crusty surface and a crease on the reverse below the middle mount. The mounts have an untouched, aged patina. The lower mount was cut through, just like the scabbard and blade, with a small bit of the scabbard metal extending below the remains of the mount on one side.

The face of the pommel is professionally engraved, “Presented to/Major P.B. Buckingham/20'REGT C.V./by Thomas James Jr./of Seymour CT/Sept. 1st, 1862.”

Both men were businessmen and prominent members of the community. James was involved with the New Haven Copper Company. Buckingham had been born in Oxford, CT, in 1820, married in 1842, and was reportedly engaged in farming and school teaching before moving to Seymour, CT, in 1842. He worked there as a railroad station agent, but had manufacturing and banking interests as well, and served as state senator in 1855. In August 1862 he helped raise a company that would become Co. H, 20^th Connecticut Volunteers, and was elected its Captain, but received a commission in the new regiment as Major. The regiment was assigned to the 12^th Corps, serving in the east with casualties at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, and then moving west where the 12^th and 11^th Corps were eventually united to form the 20^th Corps before the Atlanta Campaign.

Buckingham was posted to staff of division commander A.S. Williams on March 15, 1863, serving as Acting Assistant Inspector General and, from Williams’s Chancellorsville official report, also as an aide-de-camp while on the field. After Chancellorsville Buckingham had returned briefly to the regiment to command it and author its official report before returning to his post with Williams. Williams mentions Buckingham in both his official report for Chancellorsville and for Gettysburg, where Williams was acting corps commander from July 1 to July 4: “I desire to bring to the notice of the major-general commanding the faithful and gallant conduct of my staff officers, who remained with me while in discharge of my temporary duties as a corps commander: Capt. S.E. Pittman, assistant adjutant-general; Maj. P.B. Buckingham, Twentieth Connecticut Volunteers, acting assistant inspector-general. . .”

In Spring 1864 Buckingham was promoted to Lt. Colonel, moving back to the regiment, where he took command on May 6 near Buzzard’s Roost, GA, and commanded the regiment until May 9, when the regiment’s colonel took over again until July 16, after which Buckingham was again commanding officer. After the capture of Atlanta he commanded the brigade from mid-September to mid-November, returning to command of the regiment shortly after the beginning of the March to the Sea, and through the subsequent Campaign of the Carolinas, mustering out with the regiment in June 1865. In addition to the regiment’s Chancellorsville report, Buckingham wrote the regiment’s official reports from the latter part of the 1864 campaigns and 1865. Buckingham himself is mentioned in the official records for actions at Resaca, where the regiment suffered significant casualties: he led a composite force that succeeded in extracting four Confederate field pieces from an abandoned redoubt that lay under Confederate guns.

Buckingham worked for the Freedman’s Aid Society for a time after mustering out, but returned to Connecticut in late 1866 where he worked for the New Haven Chemical Company, but was stricken with paralysis in 1881 and was an invalid until his death in 1894.     [sr][ph:L]

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