RARE PRESENTATION CONFEDERATE OFFICER’S SWORD TO LT. THOMAS J. KEY OF THE COLUMBUS MINUTE BOYS OF GEORGIA

Confederate Foot Officer’s Sword Presented to T. J. Key of the “Columbus Minute Boys." Columbus, Georgia: L. Haiman, circa 1862. Approx. 38 in. overall, blade approx. 33 in., ricasso stamped with maker’s mark; blade etched on the obverse “T.J. Key. Brvt. Second Lieut. / C.S.” and on the reverse “COLUMBUS MINUTE BOYS”; complete with leather scabbard.

A finely preserved Confederate foot officer’s sword by the celebrated Columbus, Georgia maker, L. Haiman, one of the most important Southern sword manufacturers of the Civil War. The present example is distinguished by its conspicuous presentation etching, still clear and legible on both sides of the blade, naming its owner as T. J. Key, brevet second lieutenant, and identifying his company as the “Columbus Minute Boys.”

Haiman operated in Columbus, Georgia, a city that emerged as one of the Confederacy’s principal industrial centers. Contemporary advertisements show that Louis Haiman & Bro. offered officers’ swords, cavalry sabers, bayonets, and other military goods from their Broad Street premises as early as late 1861, while wartime newspaper notices praised Haiman blades among the best tempered in the Confederacy and recorded output in the hundreds per week. Later historical accounts would identify the Haiman works as the largest sword manufactory in the South, making swords by the thousands for Confederate officers and enlisted men alike. A named presentation sword from this important manufactory is, in itself, a significant survival.

A surviving Alabama militia letter of 24 November 1860 lists this sword’s owner, Thomas J. Key, as 1st Lieutenant of the Salem Minute Guards, suggesting that he was already active in the volunteer military culture of the Chattahoochee Valley before the outbreak of full-scale war. By the spring of 1862, he appears securely in connection with the Columbus Minute Boys, a company raised for coast defense and attached to the William H. Ross Battalion, Georgia State Troops. A contemporary Columbus newspaper account of 29 March 1862, describing a visit to Ross’s command at “Camp Lee” near Savannah, specifically names T. J. Key among the lieutenants assisting Capt. Hatch Cook and remarks favorably upon the officers and men of the company. Another period summary records that the Columbus Minute Boys had already been in state service for six months on the coast of Georgia, having left for Savannah on 29 October, before reorganizing for Confederate service on 19 May 1862.

That reorganization is important in understanding Key’s service. A later roster of the company as reorganized for Confederate service names a new slate of officers, indicating that Key’s clearest and most secure association with the Columbus Minute Boys belongs to their earlier state-service phase during the first wave of local patriotic mobilization, when companies such as the Minute Boys were still closely tied to their home communities and municipal identities.

The surviving research suggests that Key’s military career did not end there. Later records place a Capt. T. J. Key in the reorganization of Waddell’s 20th Alabama Light Artillery Battalion after Vicksburg. That command, reorganized at Columbus, Georgia, in November 1863, included a battery under Capt. T. J. Key and was ordered to Dalton, Georgia, for service with the Army of Tennessee, where it was placed in the Reserve Artillery under Lt. Col. James H. Hallonquist. Additional muster evidence associates Key with Company B, 28th Battalion Georgia Siege Heavy Artillery, where he appears as lieutenant and captain.

That later artillery connection is especially interesting in light of the broader history of the 28th Battalion, Georgia Siege Artillery. Organized at Savannah in the summer of 1863 from independent heavy artillery companies, the battalion served in the Department of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida and took active part in the Battle of Olustee. In the spring of 1864 portions of the battalion were sent north as infantry, with some companies serving in Virginia and others remaining in the coastal departments.

A significant, a named and inscribed presentation piece to an officer of one of Columbus’s best-known volunteer companies. The survival of both the etched blade and leather scabbard only heightens its appeal.

Note: This lot cannot be packaged and shipped in-house. Successful bidders winning items marked as being packaged and shipped by a third-party service are responsible for paying the third party directly. We are happy to offer complimentary drop-off service to local third-party packing/shipping companies in Columbus, Ohio.

[Civil War, Union, Confederate] [Swords, Knives, Bowie Knives, Knife, Cutlass, Cutlasses, Blades]

Drag has been replaced. Leather scabbard has been restored.