Original Item: Only One Available. This is a lovely battlefield dug sword found at Fleetwood Hill. This has a high possibility of having been a Confederate used sword, as records indicate they imported over 1,000 of the P-1853 Cavalry Sabers from the British during the Civil War.

This original Pattern 1853 cavalry saber is an unmarked example, which was common on imported blades. Saber is in very good overall condition and measures 34 ¼” long with a total length of 40 ⅜”. The black painted blade is just slightly curved and faintly has “FLEETWOOD HILL” painted on it. We believe this sword to have been recovered from this site decades after the end of the war. The entire sword has been cleaned and painted, but the past pitting located throughout are indications of it having been in the earth for a very long time.

The large, flat, iron hilt features a wide, flat knuckle bow with a two-branch counterguard and a quillon terminating in a flat disc. Entire hilt wears a dark bronze colored paint and has the two-piece grips of original, checkered leather strips riveted to the blade tang with five iron rivets.

This is a lovely Civil War relic, ready for further research and display.

Battle of Brandy Station

The Battle of Brandy Station, also called the Battle of Fleetwood Hill, was the largest predominantly cavalry engagement of the American Civil War, as well as the largest ever to take place on American soil. It was fought on June 9, 1863, around Brandy Station, Virginia, at the beginning of the Gettysburg Campaign by the Union cavalry under Maj. Gen. Alfred Pleasonton against Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart's Confederate cavalry.

Union commander Pleasonton launched a surprise dawn attack on Stuart's cavalry at Brandy Station. After an all-day fight in which fortunes changed repeatedly, the Federals retired without discovering Gen. Robert E. Lee's infantry camped near Culpeper. This battle marked the end of the Confederate cavalry's dominance in the East. From this point in the war, the Federal cavalry gained strength and confidence.