Model 1850 Foot Officer Sword of Capt. Patrick Hart - 19th Indiana - Wounded and Captured at Gettysburg

American Civil War

30.75" single edged spear point blade with a 22.5" stopped median fuller. Blade 1.0625" wide at ricasso, with a 12.5" narrow fuller at the spine. 36.125" in overall length. 6" hilt with gilt brass guard with foliate decorations and a shagreen covered grooved wood grip with 13 wraps of multi-strand wire. Blade is unmarked as to maker or retailers. Blade with 17" etched panels depicting foliate scrolls, martial themes and panoplies of arms, as well as patriotic motifs. The reverse of the blade has a prominent US in the center and the obverse has a {Spread-Winged American Eagle} with a ribbon that reads E Pluribus Unum. The sword is accompanied by its brass mounted leather scabbard that is engraved on the obverse throat and reads: Presented to/CAPT. P.H. HART/Co. H. 19th IND. VOL./By/Citizens of Edinburgh. The sword is accompanied by a large binder of information and research about Hart, including a CVD of him. A copy of Gettysburg Magazine Volume 18 is also included, in which Wiley Sword wrote an article about the sword and Hart's actions that day, including his capture.

Patrick Henry Hart (1830-1884) was a 31 year old blacksmith in Edinburgh, IN when he joined the 19th Indiana Volunteer Infantry on July 29, 1861. He was initially elected a sergeant in Company H and on November 15, 1861 was promoted to 1st lieutenant. He was later promoted to captain of the company on April 7, 1862. The 19th Indiana was part of the famed Iron Brigade under General John Gibbon, which also included the 2nd, 6th & 7th Wisconsin as well as Battery B of the 4th US Light Artillery and later the 24th Michigan Infantry. The 19th Indiana started their service in the defenses of Washington in August of 1861 and saw duty in the Northern Virginia area for most of 1861.

1862 brought more of the same, a combination of movement, reconnaissance, and minor skirmishing, primarily in the Northern Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley areas. Their first major action was a Brawner's Farm on August 28, 1862, followed immediately by Second Manassas. They fought at South Mountain on September 14 and here Hart received a "serious wound in the leg". He went back to Edinburgh to recover and while there was presented with this sword by the citizens of the town, which is documented in period newspaper accounts. His service records indicate that he was absent due to the wound during September and October of 1862 and was back with the regiment as of November. As a result, Hart missed the regiment's combat at Antietam, but was back with the company for Fredericksburg.

In 1863 the regiment participated in Burnside's Mud March in January and took the field with the Army of Potomac for the Chancellorsville Campaign, where they did not see action. The regiment was heavily engaged at Gettysburg on July 2 suffering 210 killed, wounded and missing of the 339 effectives that day. Among the "missing" was Captain Hart who was captured that day and would spend the balance of the war in southern prisoner of war camps. He would be incarcerated at Macon, GA and in Columbia, SC and would finally be released in Wilmington, NC on March 1, 1865. After the war he worked for the Post Office in Edinburgh and died in 1884 two months shy of his 54th birthday.

From the Collection of George Oldenbourg

Ex-Wiley Sword Collection