Lot 94

George Armistead Virginia Presentation N.P. Ames Officer's Sword

Previous image preload Next image preload
Back to catalog
Lot 94
image_0 image_1 image_2 image_3 image_4 image_5 image_6 image_7 image_8 image_9 image_10 image_11 image_12 image_13 image_14
George Armistead Virginia Presentation N.P. Ames Officer's Sword
George Armistead Virginia Presentation N.P. Ames Officer's Sword
image_0 image_1 image_2 image_3 image_4 image_5 image_6 image_7 image_8 image_9 image_10 image_11 image_12 image_13 image_14

George Armistead Virginia Presentation N.P. Ames Officer's Sword

Estimate: $250,000 - $475,000

Starting Bid: $180,000

(0 Bids)
by Rock Island Auction Company
June 27, 2026 5:00 PM CDT
Live Auction
3600 Harwood Road
Bedford, TX, US 76021

Incredible National Treasure Historic Commonwealth of Virginia Presentation N. P. Ames Officer's Dress Sword with Solid Gold Hilt, Gilt Scabbard, and Presentation Case Made in Honor of Brevet Lieutenant Colonel George Armistead, "The Hero of Fort McHenry," the Man Who Ordered the Star-Spangled Banner and Inspired Our National Anthem This is one of the most historic and significant American swords in private hands: the solid gold hilted Ames presentation sword ordered by the Commonwealth of Virginia in honor of American hero Brevet Lieutenant Colonel George Armistead (1780-1818), the man who commissioned the Star-Spangled Banner and commanded the defense of Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore. Armistead, a native Virginian, commissioned Mary Pickersgill in 1813, for a flag "so large that the British will have no difficulty in seeing it from a distance." The immense flag measured some 30 by 42 feet with each of the stars about two feet wide. Pickersgill, her thirteen-year-old daughter Caroline, teenage nieces Eliza and Margaret Young, and Grace Wisher, an indentured African-American, worked together to produce the large garrison flag along with a smaller storm flag for Fort McHenry from July to August 1813. Under Armistead's orders, the Star-Spangled Banner was raised over the fort at dawn's early light on the morning of September 14, 1814, as his men played "Yankee Doodle" and fired their guns in celebration after the British broke off their attack and accepted defeat. Armistead kept the Star-Spangled Banner until his death, when it was passed down to his wife, then his daughter Georgeanna Armistead Appleton, and then his grandson Ebenezer Appleton who loaned the flag to the Smithsonian Institution in 1907 and gifted it in 1912. It remains one of the Smithsonian’s most popular and significant artifacts. Across the water, Francis Scott Key was held on the British flagship and watched with pride as the Star-Spangled Banner waved defiantly over Fort McHenry that morning. He had watched through the previous day and night as the fort endured over 24 hours of near continuous British bombardment, watching for the bursting bombs and Congreve rockets to illuminate the fort's flag giving him proof that his countrymen retained control of the fort. The bravery of Armistead and his men inspired Key to write the poem "Defence of Fort McHenry" just following his release. Within a week of the much-needed American victory, Key's poem was in wide circulation, boosting American morale. Key's poem was adapted in song as "The Star-Spangled Banner." Following American victory in the War of 1812, it was played regularly at military ceremonies. In 1931, it officially became the National Anthem of the United States. As we celebrate the 250th Anniversary of American Independence, it is important to recall that the United States affirmed its independence in the War of 1812. Following victory in the American Revolution, the United Kingdom officially gave the United States control of the territory extending to the Mississippi River in the west thanks to the heroic actions of George Rogers Clark and his men. However, the British continued to control forts within the Northwest Territory well-after the Treaty of Paris and also continued to supply arms, ammunitions, and other material assistance to Native American tribes hostile to American expansion even after relinquishing control of the forts. During the Napoleonic Wars, the Royal Navy had also captured numerous American merchant vessels restricting American trade and impressed American sailors into the naval service, often accusing the men of having been deserters from the Royal Navy. In response to these incursions on American sovereignty, President James Madison asked Congress to formally declare war for the first time in the nation’s history, and the war officially began on June 18, 1812. As had been the case in the American Revolution, the Americans during the “Second War of Independence” were the underdogs, but the British were also engaged in war with the First French Empire led by Napoleon, preventing them from fully concentrating their considerable military might on the United States. The U.S. military in the period primarily relied on state militia units. The regular army consisted of less than 7,000 men and was relatively poorly trained and inexperienced. The British Army, by comparison, had nearly a quarter million men. The American plan was to take the initiative and invade Canada to apply pressure to the British before they could respond effectively, but the invasion largely proved to be an embarrassment as the American militia faltered in battle and was unable to overpower the Canadians and their Native American allies. When Napoleon was defeated and forced into exile in April 1814, the British were able to concentrate more of their military forces towards the effort to defeat the United States, and landed over 4,000 men in Maryland and burned much of Washington, D.C., delivering a serious blow to American morale on August 24, 1814. The next major battle would be the American defense of Baltimore and Fort McHenry, the latter under the command of Major George Armistead. George Armistead was born at the Newmarket plantation in Virginia during the American Revolution and entered the U.S. military during the Quasi War with France in 1799 as an ensign in the U.S. 7th Infantry. He was promoted to second lieutenant that March and first lieutenant by mid-1800 before being discharged. The following year, he joined the 2nd Artillery and was promoted to captain in 1806. During the War of 1812, he was promoted to major in the 3rd Artillery and earned fame thanks to the amphibious assault and capture of Fort George on the Niagara after which he was given the great honor of delivering the captured British colors to President James Madison. The artillery battered the fort before the assault, including using heated shot to set fire to the fort’s buildings. After delivering the flags, Armistead was placed in command of Fort McHenry to defend Baltimore. Upon taking command, he ordered the famous Star-Spangled Banner to serve as the fort’s garrison flag and show defiance to the British invaders. In September 1814, during the Battle of Baltimore, Armistead found himself in the opposite position from the Battle of Fort George. Instead of shelling a fort, he was responsible for defending a fort against a tremendous enemy bombardment in order to protect Baltimore Harbor and the city from a seaborne invasion. From the early hours of September 13, 1814, through the following morning, Fort McHenry sustained fire from the British Royal Navy. Unlike the enemy at Fort George, Armistead and his roughly 1,000 men held strong, and the fort remained standing with the flag flying high throughout battle. The National Intelligencer on September 20, 1814, reported that "Major Armistead in his defence of fort McHenry has immortalized himself..." Armistead wrote to the Secretary of War on the 24th to provide his account of the bombardment, noting that his delay in writing was due to his fatigue from the battle. During the bombardment, which he stated lasted 25 hours with two brief intermissions, his men fired their own artillery back at the Royal Navy when they came into range preventing them from attacking the city and also engaged British landing parties using the “rockets’ red glare” from the British Congreve rockets to direct their own fire. Prior to the battle, Francis Scott Key sought the release of his friend Dr. William Beanes who had been taken prisoner and was held on board the HMS Tonnant. He secured Dr. Beanes’s release, but the men were held until after the attack on Baltimore to prevent them from sharing plans with the U.S. military. On board the HMS Tonnant, Key watched the bombardment of Fort McHenry through the night, knowing that if the British were still firing on the fort and the stars and stripes still flew overhead, then Armistead and his men were still holding out. Around 400 British shells landed within the fort during the battle, but Armistead counted only four men killed and twenty-four wounded, all of whom he expected to recover. The fort’s storm flag is believed to have flown through the night and was brought down in the morning when the famous Star-Spangled Banner flag was raised “in dawn’s early light” for the morning reveille and spotted by Francis Scott Key as the British withdrew. Unable to destroy or capture the fort and at risk of more accurate counter-fire in the daylight, the British left defeated as Yankee Doodle proudly played under the Star-Spangled Banner within Fort McHenry. In his report, Armistead to his credit claimed no glory for himself and closed noting: “Were I to name any individual who signalized themselves, it would be doing injustice to the others. Suffice it to say, that every officer and soldier under my command did their duty to my entire satisfaction.” After the battle, the flag was given to Armistead as a memento of his victory, and he was given the brevet rank of lieutenant colonel. Armistead remained the commander of the fort until his death in 1818. It is said that he never physically recovered from the strenuous months long preparations for the battle and died from heart disease. In addition to protecting Baltimore, he and his men provided much needed hope for the American cause. Armistead's brother-in-law Christopher Hughes Jr. (1786-1849) had previously been a captain in the 1st Maryland Artillery stationed at Fort McHenry, but his term had ended in August of 1813. At the time of the battle, he was in Europe as the secretary for the American delegation sent to negotiate the Treaty of Ghent that officially brought the War of 1812 to an end. Armistead's defense of Fort McHenry combined with other American victories in 1814 brought the war to a close on favorable terms for the United States, and Hughes brought the treaty home to Washington. George Armistead's son Christopher Hughes Armistead (1816-1876) was named for his uncle and was a prominent citizen of Baltimore. He appears in records as a merchant selling a variety of goods, including firearms, hardware, and seed in the 1840s. Late in the decade, he partnered in the hardware firm Wm. H. Moore & Co. In 1861, he was one of the secretaries for a meeting of the citizens of Baltimore during the secession crisis just before the Civil War. During the war, his cousin Lewis Addison Armistead (1817-1863), a former officer in the U.S. Army, fought for the Confederacy as a brigadier general and was mortally wounded during Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg. Afterwards, C. Hughes Armistead recovered his cousin’s body and had him buried alongside his father in Baltimore. At the same time this younger Armistead was fighting against the Union, the popularity of the Star-Spangled Banner that had generated so much fame for George Armistead and his family skyrocketed in the North, and Confederate prisoners were secured in Fort McHenry under the stars and stripes. The song continued to gain in popularity and was the official song played when raising and lowering the flag before the turn of the century. After many failed attempts, it officially became the United States’ national anthem in 1931 securing the defense of Fort McHenry as one of the most memorable and significant victories in American cultural history. To this day, a bronze of Armistead stands on watch at Fort McHenry. This incredible sword was presented on February 22, 1841, George Washington’s birthday, to Armistead’s son as a posthumous honor for his father. As discussed in the Richmond Enquirer of Richmond, Virginia, on February 25, 1841, the resolution for the order of a sword in honor of Armistead was passed back on March 9, 1836, and reads “Resolved unanimously by the General Assembly of Virginia, That the Governor of this Commonwealth be, and he is hereby requested to procure a sword with appropriate devices and inscriptions, and to cause the same to be presented to the son of Lieutenant-Colonel George Armistead late of the Army of the U.S., as an evidence of the high esteem and admiration entertained by his native State, for the courage and soldier-like conduct of Colonel Armistead, in the cannonade of Fort George by Niagara, and in the gallant defence of Fort McHenry on the fourteenth of September, eighteen hundred and fourteen.” The reply of Armistead’s son began with: “The feelings of gratification with which my breast is filled, nearly overpowers me at the receipt of this token in remembrance of the estimation of the valiant deeds of a gallant father, for services rendered his country beyond the precincts of this his native State, and now a quarter century since.” He went on to extol the virtues of Virginia and poetically stated, “I will answer for Virginians and the sons of Virginians. In the mountains of Maryland, your sister State, the noble Potomac finds its source and waters your verdant valleys, and when the clarion of war calls to the charge, we will come with our best blood as freely to water your plains, with such men, as those who with your gallant Son as their leader kept that flag flying, the stripes and stars of which shone so brightly amidst the ‘rockets red glare, and bombs bursting in air.’ I trust that the day may never come, when this good steel will be called into requisition; but if it ever does, I hope that It may be proved with an arm quickened by the same blood as that of my father, whose bold deeds have brought to his Son this proud day, and whose glorious example will excite him to similar ones.” The sword has a 30 ¾ inch straight blade etched with floral, patriotic, and classical martial motifs as well as “Designed by Washinn Hood U.S. Topogh Eng” on the obverse in a scroll and has “N.P. Ames/Cutler/Springfield” on the reverse side. The solid gold hilt has the Virginia state motto: “SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS” (thus always to tyrants) in a banner at the top of the obverse languet over a detailed rendition of the scene from the Seal of the Commonwealth of Virginia depicting Virtue triumphing over Tyranny, highly detailed scroll crossguard finials, additional acanthus scroll designs on the grip, a panel with classical martial trophies and patriotic shield on the obverse side, “THE STATE OF/VIRGINIA/COL. GEO. ARMISTEAD. U.S.A” on the reverse side of the grip, and “Presented by the State of Virginia to the son of Col. Geo. Armistead late of the Army of the U.S. as an evidence of the high esteem & admiration entertained by his native state of the courage & soldier like conduct of Col. Armistead in the Cannonade of Fort George by Niagara & in the gallant defence of Fort McHenry Sept 14th 1814” inscribed on the reverse languet. The gilt silver scabbard decorated with three gilt silver highly ornamented mounts. The central mount has a solid gold repousse plaque in the center, highly detailed, depicting the famous naval battle and all the ships at Fort McHenry. “HONOR TO THE BRAVE” is featured above the suspension band, oak leaves and acorns on the drag section, and “N.P. AMES/Cutler/Cabotville/WORKS/Springfield/MASS.” on the reverse above the suspension band. The sword shaped rosewood case has red lining and a silver plaque inscribed “N.P. AMES/SWORD MANUFACTURER/CABOTVILLE WORKS/SPRINGFIELD. MASS.” In discussion of the Ames swords ordered for presentation to War of 1812 heroes on pages 94 and 113 of “The Ames Sword Company, 1829-1935,” Hamilton notes “In all places where the gold showed, except the scabbard, Nathan [Ames] had used solid gold instead of silver gilt plate, in all amounting to nearly 300 dollars’ worth of gold.” The cost to the State of New York for the sword presented to Captain Daniel Turner is listed at $500; a tremendous sum for 1840 but still $100 less than the current sword. Hamilton goes on to note, “Exhibition of Turner’s sword was definitely instrumental in obtaining the State of Virginia contract which together with New York’s commission, established the preeminence of Ames swords.” The Commonwealth of Virginia ordered nine swords for $600 each. They were for General Roger Jones, Colonel George Armistead, Major Thomas M. Nelson, and Captain Richard H. Bell of the U.S. Army; Captain Thomas ap Catesby Jones, Captain Charles W. Morgan, Captain Elie A.F. Lavalette, and Captain Hugh Nelson Page of the U.S. Navy; and Colonel Archibald Henderson, commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps. Henderson’s sword has been in the collection of the National Museum of the Marine Corps since 1954. The pattern for these swords was designed by Captain Washington Hood of the U.S. Topographical Engineers for the State of Virginia in 1840, and the design was also used for Ames’s Pattern 1840 Medical Staff Officer and Pay Department Staff Officer swords (see page 50 of “The Ames Sword Company, 1829-1935” by Hamilton). Two of these swords presented by the Commonwealth of Virginia are pictured on page 95 and 100 of “The Ames Sword Company, 1829-1935,” Captain Lavalette’s (Philadelphia Maritime Museum, now the Independence Seaport Museum) and Colonel Henderson’s (U.S. Marine Corps Museum & Historical Center, now the National Museum of the Marine Corps). Like the Armistead sword, these swords were presented in recognition for each of the above men’s contributions to the American war effort decades earlier in the War of 1812. The swords were not ready for the original intended presentation date of July 4 due to the time required to prepare the necessary equipment including the dies. It was not uncommon for arms contractors to fail to meet deadlines in the 19th century given the constraints of the era, and the quality of the swords was of far more importance than the date they were presented, so Governor Thomas W. Gilmer told Ames to take his time given he could not be in Washington, D.C., until October. The date for the inspection of the completed swords was scheduled for December 14, 1840. An original handwritten document dated “Washington City/ December 14th 1840.” and signed by Paymaster General Nathaniel Towson and Acting Chief of the Ordnance Bureau George Talcott is included stating: “The undersigned have inspected the presentation swords manufactured by N. P. Ames for the State of Virginia, and certify that they correspond with the design and specifications referred to in the contract as fully as is practicable, that the slight variations from the design were first submitted to and approved by the Committee, and are believed to be improvements. The workmanship, in the opinion of the Committee, is executed in a style superior to anything of the kind that they have seen and reflects great credit to the manufacturer.” Naturally, such a glowing statement was used to further promote Ames swords, and they remained popular presentation and dress sword for American officers for generations thereafter.

Manufacturer: None

Model: None

Class: Other

  • Provenance: Presented by the Commonwealth of Virginia to Christopher Hughes Armistead in Honor of His Father, Brevet Lieutenant Colonel George Armistead; A Private Collection
  • Condition: Exceptionally fine overall with bright original gold, crisp inscription, distinct etching, bright blade with minimal age related discoloration, a small nick at the edge, and light age and storage related wear overall including light scratches on the scabbard. The case is very fine and has some minor wear on the exterior and one slightly chipped latch, attractive aged patina on the plaque, and minor fading from storage. This is an incredible historic sword presented in honor of the “Hero of Fort McHenry” Brvt. Lt. Col. George Armistead, the man who ordered and owned the Star-Spangled Banner, by the Commonwealth of Virginia. It remains in incredible condition and is a true work of American art and fine armsmaking worthy of a prominent place in the most discriminating collection of fine arms and Americana. It certainly would be at home on display in the Smithsonian with the famous Star-Spangled Banner.

Accepted Forms of Payment:

American Express, Discover, MasterCard, Money Order / Cashiers Check, Personal Check, Visa, Wire Transfer

Shipping

Rock Island Auction will contact you shortly after the auction has completed. We will arrange for shipping and or pickup.

Rock Island Auction Company

You agree to pay a buyer's premium of 30% and any applicable taxes and shipping.

View full terms and conditions

Bid Increments
From: To: Increments:
$0 $199 $10
$200 $499 $25
$500 $999 $50
$1,000 $1,999 $100
$2,000 $4,999 $250
$5,000 $9,999 $500
$10,000 $19,999 $1,000
$20,000 $49,999 $2,500
$50,000 $99,999 $5,000
$100,000 $199,999 $10,000
$200,000 + $25,000