OFFICER'S SWORD PRESENTED TO WILLIAM U. SAUNDERS, AFRICAN AMERICAN CIVIC LEADER, CIVIL WAR SOLDIER, ORGANIZER OF MARYLAND'S FIRST ALL-BLACK MILITIA, & RADICAL REPUBLICAN ELECTED TO OFFICE IN FLORIDA DURING RECONSTRUCTION 

William U. Saunders (1835–1883) was a prominent African American leader during the Civil War and Reconstruction. Born in Baltimore, he entered military service in 1863 with Company D of the 7th United States Colored Infantry and quickly advanced to the rank of quartermaster sergeant. The regiment endured a demanding series of campaigns from Florida to Virginia, and distinguished itself in some of the fiercest fighting of the war. At Petersburg, New Market Heights, and Chaffin’s Farm, Saunders and his comrades confronted entrenched Confederate defenses, earning praise for their discipline and valor under fire.

After the war, back in Baltimore, Saunders rapidly transitioned to civic leadership. In 1865, he co-founded the Lincoln Zouaves, a Black militia that paraded proudly as “Corps d’Afrique” when Maryland refused to recognize Black companies in the state Guard. Saunders, elected their colonel, led the Zouaves in high-profile public ceremonies, most famously as chief marshal of Baltimore’s massive 1870 parade celebrating the Fifteenth Amendment. Contemporary reports praised his flawless command of the vast procession, with notables such Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison in attendance. Prints and photographs from the day place armed Black Zouaves prominently at its head, a striking image of emerging citizenship that Saunders helped orchestrate.

In the years after the war, Saunders extended his activism into the Reconstruction South. Relocating to Florida, he emerged as an organizer of Union League clubs, mobilizing the state’s newly enfranchised Black electorate and helping to build Republican strength at the grassroots. His prominence earned him election as a delegate to Florida’s 1868 constitutional convention, where he was regarded as a persuasive and forceful advocate. Renowned as an orator, Saunders’s reputation carried beyond the state. In 1872 he appeared at New York’s Cooper Institute to support Horace Greeley’s presidential bid, arguing that Greeley’s long record of antislavery commitment offered a more compelling vision for African Americans than the candidacy of Ulysses S. Grant, despite Grant’s stature as the Union’s commanding general.

The presentation sword offered here is inscribed to “Lt. Col. Wm. U. Saunders” by his “Brother Officers” of the Lincoln Zouaves and reflects the extraordinary arc of Saunders' life. It was given in recognition of his “meritorious conduct in the field” during the Civil War and his “distinguished services” in organizing Maryland’s first Black militia regiment. Though the rank refers to his postwar militia command, the sword itself stands as both a relic of wartime experience and a marker of Reconstruction-era leadership.

The sword, a fine M1850 officer’s model produced by Horstmann & Sons of Philadelphia, is in wonderful condition, with a mellow patina throughout. The well-executed presentation is found on a brass top mount on the metal scabbard. Fittingly, the blade is etched with patriotic and martial symbols. 

Saunders died in 1883, but his story as a soldier, militia leader, and Reconstruction activist makes him a consequential figure in the struggle for African American citizenship in American public life.

[Swords, Knives, Bowie Knives, Knife, Blades] [USCT, United States Colored Troops, Glory, 54th Massachusetts, Buffalo Soldiers, Black Soldiers] [African Americana, African American History, Black History, Slavery, Enslavement, Abolition, Emancipation]