Intended to impress the enemy with the bearer’s willingness to bring the fight to close quarters, these side knives are quintessentially Confederate and form a collecting field of their own. They show up in many early war Confederate photographs and are excavated from campsites and battlefields as well. Knives for personal defense were common throughout the south before the war, popularized by tales of Jim Bowie and bloody duels. The war ignited a massive output of larger fighting knives across the Confederacy that symbolized the public determination to fight to the end, and certainly added to a soldier’s warlike appearance.

This one, formerly in the collections of the Texas Civil War Museum, has wide single edged blade made with the tang in line with the straight back edge, a long, shallow slip point and rounded cutting edge at the guard. The hilt is iron, rather angular, but flaring slightly at pommel and widening in a shallow curve to form a counterguard at the blade, and then curving forward rather gracefully at the quillon. There is no sign of an iron ferrule used on the wood grip, which is, obviously, missing. The knife is deeply corroded, but solid, stable and the metal elements are there and in place. Please see our photos.

The knife is in good, relic condition as shown. It shares characteristics with the various types of knife produced for the Georgia Arsenal. See, Phillips, Confederate Bowie Knives of the Georgia State Arsenal, and Melton, Phillips & Sexton, Confederate Bowie Knives for details and the various sub-types. That particular series of knives was produced in the wake of the Confederate defeats at Forts Henry and Donelson in early 1862 when Georgia Governor Brown issued a proclamation encouraging the production of pikes and bowie knives for defense of the state, and likely also just to spur the public’s martial spirit after the bad news. These were supplied by cutlers, gunsmiths, blacksmiths, metal shops and others, with about 4,900 sent to the Georgia Arsenal and roughly 1,200 recorded as issued, though makers supplying knives to Arsenal likely were making, or had been making, similar knives for private sale to recruits from an early date.

This is a good, relic condition, “dead-real” Confederate D-guard Bowie.  [sr] [ph:L]

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