RELIC CIVIL WAR US NAVY CUTLASS WITH SERIAL/RACK NUMBERS

$550.00 ON HOLD

Quantity Available: 1

Item Code: 490-6744

This is an excavated example of the regulation Civil War US Navy cutlass. These are still referred to as the Model 1860 in collector shorthand, though the contract for this pattern was signed in June 1861. This is full length and the blade, though brown and deeply pitted still has the point intact. The leather wrapped and wire bound wood grip long ago disintegrated, so the pommel is able to slide away a bit from the peened blade tang that would otherwise be firmly against it. The cup guard is present and intact, and looks good, though showing some dents and a short tear at its upper forward point where it is rivetted to the counterguard.

Blade and tang are too corroded to make out any markings (though these are often lightly marked anyway,) but the brass elements of the hilt have a pleasing, aged patina and the serial number stamped on the upper inside of the guard is still sharp: “10M/880,” with “M” standing for “1,000,” making this one #10,880 and placing it about midway in the production run and deliveries. The Navy eventually contracted for a total of 25,000, though McAulay notes an additional 1,491 had been accepted, and other scholars note Bureau of Naval Ordnance records only record deliveries of 22,000, and one cutlass numbered over 25,000 has been noted. All which perhaps indicates some were rejected or Navy records on deliveries are mistaken.

In any case, the majority of the cutlasses were delivered in 1862, as is certainly the case for this one. The Navy asked for the numbers to applied by Ames in August 1861 and assumed 200 had already been delivered, but the number was actually about 600 by the time Ames got the directive, and numbering apparently started there, though the Navy also requested those already delivered be marked in the Navy Yard. These are effectively serial numbers, though the Navy regarded them as functioning as rack numbers, noting in its August 1861 request to Ames to number them that, “if articles are not marked at first, they are apt to be disfigured in the attempt to distinguish them on board ship.”

Modeled on a French pattern, the M1861 cutlas replaced the older, heavy 1841 cutlasses, though the Navy was hard-pressed enough for arms at the beginning of the war that the older style was retained and even some army short swords called into service. The cutlass was issued to some members of gun crews and intended to repel boarders as well as to hack through an enemy’s anti-boarding nets to get on board where its short blade could be effectively wielded on a cramped deck.    [sr][ph:L]

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