SWORD PRESENTED TO U.S. COLORED TROOPS OFFICER WHO LED BLACK SOLDIERS AT THE BATTLE OF THE CRATER & AT PETERSBURG

POSSIBLE, INTRIGUING CONNECTION TO JOHN WILKES BOOTH

M1850 Officer’s Presentation Sword. 31 1/2 in. single-edged blade. Complete in leather scabbard with engraved brass mounts and hanging rings. Union shield situated at base of scabbard with the engraving: “Presented to Capt. W.H. Jordan / By the Members of the Baltimore Military School as a token of respect, as a Military teacher.” Blade engraved by small foliate designs throughout half its length on one side and patriotic motifs and foliate scrolls to the reverse. Elegant brass hilt and guard decorated with scrolling foliage. Shagreen handle wrapped in double-twisted brass wiring.  

Captain William H. Jordan appears on official rosters as a company officer of the 30th United States Colored Troops, serving from 26 February 1864, through 3 April 1865. Organized at Camp Stanton, Maryland, the regiment deployed almost immediately to the Virginia theater, where it participated in the Petersburg campaign and the infamous Battle of the Crater on 30 July 1864. Contemporary accounts and later regimental histories specifically document the involvement of the 30th and 43rd USCT in the Crater assaults, marking Jordan's direct participation in one of the war's most controversial engagements.

The presentation inscription referencing the "Baltimore Military School" indicates Jordan's prewar or early war service as a military instructor at what was likely the Catonsville Military Institute, the successor institution to St. Timothy's Hall. This Episcopal military academy, located outside Baltimore, is well-documented in regional histories as having educated John Wilkes Booth during his youth. The school reportedly cultivated strong Southern sympathies among its students, shaping the perspectives of many young Marylanders during the turbulent years preceding the conflict.

It is striking to consider that William H. Jordan, who once provided military instruction to students with Confederate leanings, would later command African American soldiers in the Union cause. 

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[Civil War, Union, Confederate]  [Relics, Militaria] [Medals, Corps Badges, Badges][Swords, Knives, Bowie Knives, Knife, Blades]