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Item:
ONSV2955

Original U.S. Civil War Named Ohio Volunteer Infantry 1850 Field Officer Saber

Item Description

Original Item: One-of-a-kind. Lieutenant Colonel Krewson Yerkes was Civil War Union Army officer. He served with the Fifth Ohio Infantry Regiment, April 20, 1861 to July 26, 1865. He was educated in the public schools, and learned the trade of a carpenter. In 1860 he went to Centreville, Indiana, and later in the same year to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he engaged in his trade until the outbreak of the Civil War. He was one of the first to respond to the call of his country in that struggle, in which he served with gallantry from the beginning until its close.

On April 20, 1861, he entered the army as second sergeant of Company D, Fifth Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and was mustered out with his regiment, June 18, 1861, on which day he re-enlisted to serve three years in the sane company, of which he was appointed first sergeant. On March 11, 1862, he was commissioned second lieutenant, and on September 17, 1862, at the Battle of Antietam, he received a gunshot wound through his right side.

He was promoted first lieutenant, October 3, 1862, and assigned to Company E of the same regiment, and on May 24, 1863, was promoted captain. On March 20, 1864, he married Lydia S. Leighton in Philadelphia. On July 20, 1864, he was wounded in action, receiving a gunshot wound in the right arm, at Peach-Tree Creek, in front of Atlanta, Georgia, just before that city was taken by General Sherman.

On February 26, 1865, he was promoted major, receiving his commission as such while on the march of Sherman's army from Savannah, Georgia, to Goldsborough, North Carolina. On July 20, 1865, he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel, and was mustered out with his regiment six days later.

After quitting the army, he returned to Philadelphia, where he engaged in business as a carpenter and builder. He was an original member of the Pennsylvania Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States; also a member of E.D. Baker Post No. 8, G.A.R., and St. Paul's Lodge, No. 481, F. and A.M. He and his wife were Baptists. They had two children, Warren R. and Anna E. Yerkes, both born in Philadelphia. (Krewson Yerkes is No. 844 in the Chronicle of the Yerkes Family by Josiah Granville Leach.)

Yerkes's officer sword has a 29 3/8" blade with unusual etching, E. Pluribus Unum 1862 on left side, right side with large U.S. Brass hilt of standard form. Copper wire wrapped leather grip. Leather scabbard with three mounts. Pommel period inscribed:

Lieut K. Yerkes, Company D, 5th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry

Blade is worn but all etching visible, including the extremely rare 1862 date. Brass pommel with deep age brass, inscription with some wear but clearly visible. Leather grip intact. Leather scabbard would rate very good with none of the usual floppiness normally associated with this style. Brass mounts with no finish but deep even age color. Drag has a few door pinches as to be expected.

Overall, a most interesting sword with the date etched into the blade and from a Lieutenant with a wonderful Civil War service record.

Blade Length: 29 3/8"
Overall Length: 35 1/4"

LTC Krewson Yerkes gravestone can be found at this link.

The Battle of Antietam, also known as the Battle of Sharpsburg, particularly in the Southern United States, was a battle of the American Civil War, fought on September 17, 1862, between Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and Union General George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac, near Sharpsburg, Maryland and Antietam Creek. Part of the Maryland Campaign, it was the first field army–level engagement in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War to take place on Union soil. It was the bloodiest day in United States history, with a combined tally of 22,717 dead, wounded, or missing.

The Battle of Peachtree Creek was fought in Georgia on July 20, 1864, as part of the Atlanta Campaign in the American Civil War. It was the first major attack by Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood since taking command of the Confederate Army of Tennessee.[4] The attack was against Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman's Union army which was perched on the doorstep of Atlanta. The main armies in the conflict were the Union Army of the Cumberland, commanded by Maj. Gen. George Henry Thomas and two corps of the Confederate Army of Tennessee.
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