Civil War Hero’s Long-Lost Sword Was Hiding in an Attic

[de officiis]

Civil War Hero’s Long-Lost Sword Was Hiding in an Attic

On the 154th anniversary of his death, the sword carried by Colonel Robert Gould Shaw will go on public display for the first time at the Massachusetts Historical Society on Tuesday. Shaw used the weapon while he led the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, one of the first official black military units in the United States. It will be on view for a limited time this summer along with other Civil War memorabilia.

According to a press release, the storied sword had been missing for decades until it was found earlier this year by Shaw’s descendants​, Mary Minturn Wood and her brother. As CBS News reports, they discovered the sword while going through the attic of a family home in Massachusetts’ North Shore. (Wood and her siblings are the great grandchildern of Shaw’s sister Sarah Susannah, who married shipping heir Robert Bowne Minturn, Jr. in 1861.)

Though the family knew the sword was in their possession at one time, they lost track of it over the generations until Wood saw it in the attic. “I said, 'Uh oh. There are three initials on it: RGS,’” Wood tells CBS. “And [my brother] went, 'Ohhh, this is the sword.’”

Difficult to understand how a family could loose track of an heirloom like that.

[Speaker to Animals]

How do you lose track of something like that?? I hope it didn't rot up there.

[BjornP]

How do you lose track of something like that?? I hope it didn't rot up there.

It probably did. Looking at the blade, it appears that a museum conservator or some other expert at restoring historical artifacts has treated it. It has the same patina close to the hilt that lots of old, restored and chemically treated historical blades in museums have. All things considered, it's in a very good condition. Loving the details on the blade.

As for how one loses track of something like that: Well, we don't know excatly how much junk that family accumulated over the century and a half.