Military - Overview
The Museum's superb military collections document the history of the men and women of the armed forces of the United States. The collections include ordnance, firearms, and swords; uniforms and insignia; national and military flags and banners; and many other objects.
The strength of the collections lies in their enormous depth. Some 3,000 military small arms and 2,400 civilian firearms document the mechanical and technological history of the infantryman's weapons from the beginning of the gunpowder era to the present. Among the 4,000 swords and knives in the collection are many spectacular presentation pieces. The collections also include Civil War era telegraph equipment, home front artifacts from both world wars, early computers such as ENIAC, Whirlwind, and Sage, and materials carried at antiwar demonstrations.
"Military - Overview" showing 3 items.
Strong Vincent's Sword
- Description
- Physical Description
- Forged steel with decorated scabbard.
- Specific History
- Strong Vincent used this sword at Gettysburg.
- General History
- Strong Vincent was a young lawyer when he volunteered for the war. He married on the day he enlisted and as he served, he wrote to his wife, “If I fall, remember you have given your husband to the most righteous cause that ever widowed a woman.” Vincent went into battle carrying her riding crop as a keepsake. At the Battle of Gettysburg, the Union saw the value of securing a rocky outcropping called Little Round Top. Vincent seized the opportunity, taking the boulder and brandishing his wife’s riding crop as he yelled to his men, “Don’t give an inch.” As he uttered the words a bullet tore through his thigh and lodged in his body. The line held, but Vincent was mortally wounded. He lingered for five days before succumbing to his wound. Major General George Sykes wrote, “Night closed the fight. The key of the battlefield was in our possession intact. Vincent, Weed and Hazlett ... sealed with their lives the spot entrusted to their keeping, and on which so much depended."
- Location
- Currently not on view
- associated person
- Vincent, Strong
- maker
- William H. Horstmann & Sons
- ID Number
- AF*14438
- catalog number
- 14438
- accession number
- 55740
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
General William T. Sherman's Sword
- Description
- Physical Description
- Model 1850 forged steel with gilt brass scabbard.
- Specific History
- General William T. Sherman wore this Model 1850 staff and field officer's sword during the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee, April 6–8, 1862.
- General History
- One of the greatest battles of the War between the States erupted near the banks of the Tennessee River at Shiloh, Tennessee. On April 6, 1862, General Sidney Johnston launched his attack. The Union forces were quickly driven back; they found themselves rapidly approaching the Tennessee River to the east and Owl Creek to the north. However, the Union troops finally established a line at an area know as "the sunken road." Confederate forces launched eleven attacks against the position, but the line would not break. The area became known as the "Hornets Nest" because of the intensity of gunfire and grazing of bullets. Finally the Southern troops brought sixty-two artillery pieces to bear on the Hornets Nest, many at point-blank range. After holding the position for six hours, the Union forces surrendered. The next morning, the fresh Union forces attacked the tired and surprised Confederates, who believed they had won a great victory. By sheer weight of numbers the federals pushed them back. Resistance stiffened; as the day wore on, the Confederates pulled back and the next day withdrew to Corinth.
- user
- Sherman, William Tecumseh
- maker
- Ames Manufacturing Company
- ID Number
- AF*15926
- catalog number
- 15926
- accession number
- 59388
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Andrew Jackson's Sword and Scabbard
- Description
- Physical Description
- Forged steel with metal scabbard.
- Specific History
- Andrew Jackson carried this sword and scabbard while commanding the American forces, which included Tennessee militia, U.S. regulars, and Cherokee, Choctaw, and Southern Creek Indians during the Creek War in the War of 1812.
- General History
- The Creek War began on August 30, 1813, when a faction of Creek known as the Red Sticks attacked a contingent of 553 American settlers at Lake Tensaw, Alabama, north of Mobile. The British were believed to be a main ally of the Indians.
- In response to the Alabama attack, Jackson led 5,000 militiamen in the destruction of two Creek villages, Tallasahatchee and Talladega. The fighting lasted into the next year, culminating in Jackson’s troops destroying the Creek defenses at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. On March 27, 1814 the battle ended with 800 Creek warriors killed and 500 women and children captured.
- On August 9, 1814, Major General Andrew Jackson signed the Treaty of Fort Jackson, ending the Creek War. The agreement provided for the surrender of twenty-three million acres of Creek land to the United States. This vast territory encompassed more than half of present-day Alabama and part of southern Georgia.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- used date
- 1812
- associated person
- Jackson, Andrew
- ID Number
- AF*32012
- catalog number
- 32012
- accession number
- 68016
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center