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This
study first appeared in the American Society of Arms Collectors
Bulletin 89
Post-Revolutionary America under the leadership of George Washington steered a very determined neutral course. But the jackals started circling near the end of Washington's second term; sides were being taken to fill the power vacuum created by his leaving. The Federalists were lining up on the pro-British side while Jefferson led the Republicans on the pro-French side. The XYZ Affair in May 1797 brought the new nation to the brink of war with France, prompting an increase of militia and their necessary supplies. The government turned to the men of the Connecticut Valley, men such as Nathan Starr, Eli Whitney, and Simeon North to arm the militia. As we can see (Figure 1), 1799 Philadelphia was not a hotbed of arms making. The City Directory1 for 1799 lists 2 gunsmiths, 2 gunmakers, and a gun manufactory along with 2 cutlers, an armorer, and a surgical instrument maker (for this information I am using James Robinson's City Directory and am not responsible for any names he might have missed in 1799). Lewis Prahl, located at 465 N. Second Street, Philadelphia, was providing cutlasses to ships under construction for the Navy. As tensions eased, and governments changed the new President, Thomas Jefferson reduced the standing army. Individual states such as Virginia began to see a need for arming their own militias. Virginia searched for skilled workers in the industrial north. Men who had come to this country from Germany, and other European nations at the turn of the century, found their way to Richmond to work in the new Virginia Manufactory of Arms.2 Trouble on the seas with Great Britain, and the Chesapeake-Leopard Affair of 1807 encouraged the Secretary of War to pursue new arms and an enlargement of the militia once again. Upon recognition that the stock of arms in the federal arsenals would never prove sufficient, Congress, in April of 1808, passed the Militia Act of 1808 which provided that "Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the annual sum of two hundred thousand dollars be, and the same hereby is appropriated, for the purpose of providing arms and military equipment for the whole body of the militia of the United States, either by purchase or manufacture, by and on account of the United States."3 Of major importance during this era is the Purveyor of Public Supplies, Mr. Tench Coxe. Mr. Coxe is a very interesting character; in fact he was the Grandson of the first Purveyor of Public Supplies, Tench Francis. Born to an aristocratic Philadelphia family with strong mercantile ties, Coxe was apprenticed in the counting house of Coxe and Furman. Tench Coxe resigned from the local militia in 1776, turned royalist, and left Philadelphia to join the British. He returned with Howe in 1777. But, as the tide turned, and the Americans took control of the city of Philadelphia, Mr. Coxe again changed sides after being arrested and paroled with Howe's retreat. A Whig in 1786, Coxe served in the Continental Congress in 1788. In 1789, Tench Coxe became a Federalist and was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Treasury. The consummate businessman always, Mr. Coxe an outstanding economist, was an early supporter of Alexander Hamilton. He soon switched sides in favor of Mr. Jefferson and the Republican Party.4 Tench Coxe recognized the need to encourage the establishment of manufacturing in the new nation. Appointed in 1803 by Thomas Jefferson as Purveyor of Public Supplies, Mr. Coxe encouraged the development of the American Arms industry and wrote many articles on the subject including: A Statement of the Arts and Manufacturers of the United States of America for the year 1810, the results of the manufacturing section of the Census of 1810. Mr. Coxe was a prolific writer. The American Memory Online section of the Library of Congress contains 211 letters, most of which were written by Tench Coxe, including over 109 to Thomas Jefferson alone. Coxe wrote about everything from Dutch Fisheries, opinions to Thomas Jefferson on matters of state in Europe in 1806, and a famous treatise on the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. In fact, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania contains a collection of the Coxe family papers in 122 rolls of microfilm that contain much of the correspondence and receipt books of Tench Coxe during his years as Purveyor of Public Supplies. Rumors regarding the dearth of acceptable arms in the federal arsenals were heard in Virginia. In a letter written in 1807 to Governor Cabell of Virginia, when asked for a sample of arms, the Secretary of War was happy to provide a horseman's pistol from Harpers Ferry. As to swords, however, he replied "We have no swords of any kind at this place I would recommend . . ."5 Word of the acceptance of written proposals by the War department in May 1808 for muskets with bayonets spread like wildfire. Many of the Virginia Manufactory employees, upon finishing their contracts in Richmond, hurried back to Philadelphia to use newly honed skills and set up their own shops. In fact, the 1810 Philadelphia City Directory6 lists 25 gunsmiths possessing many of the same names formerly found on the payroll of the Virginia Manufactory; names such as, Deringer, Nippes, Ritchie, Steinman, Watt, and Winner (Figure 2). It is these men who refined their skills in Richmond and became the backbone of the new arms manufacturing of 1808. In fact, in a letter to the Secretary of War, 2 October 1808, Mr. Coxe states "You will observe that the Virginia Armory has operated as a school, & that the present contracts of the U.S. prevent the benefits of it from being lost."7 Why Philadelphia? One must assume that the location of the Office of the Purveyor of Public Supplies at 196 Spruce Street in Philadelphia played no small part. In fact, Mr. Coxe seemed to forget about those outside of Philadelphia when contracting for swords in 1808. He completely ignored the Connecticut Valley, Mr. Starr, Misters Buell and Greenleaf who had successfully fulfilled contracts for swords in 1799. Mr. Coxe turned to Philadelphia makers such as William Rose, and James Winner, newly arrived from the Virginia Manufactory of Arms, to complete new sword contracts.
THE EVOLUTION OF THE MARYLAND SWORD The State of Maryland, like the State of Virginia, felt the need to provide their militia with more arms than were available under the Militia Act of 1808. Mr. Jim Wertenberg brought the Maryland swords to light with the recognition of the block M on the spine of the blade on several specimens. He felt that the block M was the same as seen on pistols delivered to the State of Maryland during the 1811-1815 period. Maryland purchased 500 horseman swords from the U. S. Government8 in 7 July 1810 and another 100 on 16 September 1811. These deliveries consisted of either the Rose Contract sword at a cost of $5.125 or the 1799 Starr, Buell and Greenleaf contract swords at a cost of $7.17, which were available in the Philadelphia Arsenal at that time. According to deliveries of arms received by the State of Maryland between the years 1812 and 1814,9 there were four suppliers delivering swords: Henry Figure 1. 1799 Philadelphia City Directory Listings Figure 2. 1810 Philadelphia City Directory Gunsmith Listings Deringer and J. Joseph Henry of Philadelphia, Mr. John Stewart of Baltimore, and William Allen. None of these men are known sword makers. Mr. Allen, of whom very little is known, is found delivering 50 muskets, 86 horseman swords, and 200 artillery swords to Maryland on 3 December 1813. Mr. John Stewart, Secretary for the Committee of Supplies of Baltimore during the War of 1812, provided 125 cartouche boxes, 74 pistols, and 50 swords on 15 January 1814. Very little is actually known about the early days of Henry Deringer. George Shumway in an article for Man at Arms, July/August 1985,10 reports that Henry Deringer, Jr. was born 6 October 1786. His family was in Easton, Pa. as early as 1794. He was recruited and employed at the Virginia Manufactory of Arms in Richmond, Va. from November 1807-October 1808, where he was involved in rifle manufacturing and musket work.11 In an advertisement in the Aurora General Advertiser 19 October 1810 (Figure 3), Mr. Henry Deringer is selling, at his Philadelphia Rifle Manufactory, rifles, muskets, fowling pieces, pistols, swords, & of all dimensions, manufactured and sold at No. 29 Green Street and 33 Coate's Street, N. Liberties. Mr. Deringer soon moves his rifle manufactory to a new manufactory at No. 374 North Front Street. In an ad 25 March 1811, in the General Advertiser announcing this move, he drops the advertising of swords. But, Henry Deringer delivered 100 horseman swords to the State of Maryland on 27 November 1812, and another 100 on 16 June 1813, for which he was paid $7.50 each. No Deringer marked swords are known by this author to exist; it is therefore sheer speculation as to what they looked like. As Mr. Deringer's experience was in the manufacturing of firearms, it is very likely that he purchased the swords from a local cutler in the Northern Liberties township area for resale. Mr. J. Joseph Henry provided 1000 swords to Maryland between 17 July 1813 and 6 July 1814 and was paid $9.50 for each sword. In an ad in the General Advertiser 13 April 1813, Mr. Henry makes no mention of swords. As none of the deliverers of swords to Maryland are known sword makers, we need to look further to trace the development of this sword. Those experienced in sword making in Philadelphia during this period included William Rose of Blockley Township, Abraham Nippes of St. John Street Northern Liberties Township, and James Winner of N. Third Street Northern Liberties Township. While others may have tried their hands at swordmaking, it is to the former Virginia employees that we can credit the development of the "Maryland Sword." If one looks at the artillery sword developed in the Virginia Manufactory of Arms we can see the beginnings of this sword. According to Giles Cromwell, in his book The Virginia Manufactory of Arms, the Artillery Model sword was first manufactured in the time period 1806-1810. The artillery sword (Figure 4) reflected the styling trend of the 1796 heavy cavalry swords used in Europe, with the reverse P knucklebow (without the basket hilt so prominent in the Virginia Cavalry swords). The artillery sword uses the same technique of insertion of the backstrap into a slot cut into the pommel cap as in the Virginia cavalry swords, but now the backstrap itself is more tapered and "v's" directly into the cap (Figure 5). Some of the artillery hilts are found with the more curved cavalry blades as observed here. This is the sword that James Winner must have offered to make as a new Cavalry Sword in a letter dated 22 November 1807 to the Secretary of War. The Secretary of War in turn asked if Winner could afford to make horseman swords 4 inches shorter and of a much less circular shape than the sample from Richmond.12 The cost must not have been acceptable, for in a letter dated 8 December 1807, the Secretary of War states "it is expedient to contract for swords on the conditions proposed therein,13" and thus on 9 December the Secretary of War contracts with William Rose for 2,000 horseman swords (of the hussar pattern used in 1799), at $5.125 each.
Winner, along with fellow alumni from the Virginia Manufactory, Abraham Nippes and John Steinman, form the company of Winner, Nippes and Steinman and contract with Tench Coxe on 20 July 1808, for 9,000 muskets. By May of 1809, Winner, Nippes and Steinman have already commenced deliveries of their muskets. In fact, things are going so well that James Winner is also advertising swords, dirks, hulberts, and fencing foils in the Aurora General Advertiser. Winner had a pattern sword delivered to the Secretary of War 17 April 1810 by William Duane (editor of the Aurora General Advertiser). On 8 June 1810, Winner contracts with Tench Coxe to provide 500 swords at a rate not to exceed 6 dollars each, "to be in every respect equal to the pattern submitted," and 98 sword blades at $2.00 each. The sword itself differs only slightly from the Virginia artillery sword. The Winner hilt (Figure 6) is physically larger, with a massive balled grip differing in shape to the artillery sword. The blade is slightly curved with a single small fuller, ending 9 inches from the tip of the blade. An initial 107 sword blades passed inspection by Jacob Shough on 15 December 1810, and were received in the U.S. Arsenal by George Ingels 18 December.14
The acceptance of the 107 sword blades on 15 December 1810 proved to be the high point of Winner's career. A notice appeared in the Aurora dated 17 December 1810, announcing the dissolution of the Company Winner, Nippes and Steinman, with all future business is to be handled by Abraham Nippes. What caused the break up of the firm may never come to light. On 20 December, in a letter to the Secretary of War, Tench Coxe is berating Inspector James Shough for brokering muskets with inspected barrels to South America "It appears that a parcel of arms Made by Nippes & Co., one of our ablest companies manufactured with our proved & inspected barrels had been sold by Nippes & Co., through the agency of Mr. Jacob Shough, inspector, and with the knowledge of the younger Henry to the Spaniards doubtless at a better price" the witness to the above transaction was James Winner. On 20 February 1811, when Winner announced that he had 100 swords ready for inspection and Coxe stated that he would have Jacob Shough inspect them, Winner wrote directly to the Secretary of War objecting to having Shough inspect the swords due to "a coolness"between them. At this time, Jacob Shough was basking in his position of Inspector of Arms for the War Department by endorsing commercial products. It would seem that the notoriety afforded Shough with his endorsement of Dr. Robertson's celebrated Gout and Rheumatic Drops, may have been the final straw which encouraged Coxe to fire him on 5 March 1811. The new inspector appointed was Marine T. Wickham, who in April of 1811 inspected the Winner swords, and only passed 22 blades, stating that "the hilts are bad and not one of the scabbards is equal to the pattern." Winner created a first class uproar, even threatening to go public with the stories of Tench Coxe and the Parade of Inspectors. The net result 25 October 1811 was that Winner turned over his contract for 500 horseman swords to Abraham Nippes to complete15 and a series articles began to appear in the Aurora relating to the nature of arms in the Philadelphia arsenal, the Purveyor of Public Supplies versus the inspectors, and the Winner sword controversy. Abraham Nippes seems to be the only "winner" in the firm of Winner, Nippes and Steinman. Nippes arrived in Philadelphia in 1796 on the George of Portland out of Rotterdam, and had been making cutlasses at his workshop on St. John Street since 1805. A long-standing relationship of the Nippes with J. Joseph Henry can be seen in the Henry Papers. Nippes not only was purchasing parts from Henry but also was selling Cutlasses and later muskets through Henry. On taking over the Winner sword contract, Nippes continued with the same basic sword pattern, with the exception of widening the knucklebow slightly which resulted in the familiar "spooning" effect caused when the knucklebow is inserted into the pommel cap (Figure 5). Under Nippes' tuteledge, muskets and swords were delivered in a timely manner with 110 swords delivered 14 August 1812 and another 100 swords delivered 14 October 1812. In December 1812 Nippes dies,16 leaving his estate in the hands of his widow Anna Maria, brother Daniel Nippes, and stepson and former Virginia Manufactory employee, Daniel Henkels. It was to Daniel Henkels that the business of Abraham Nippes fell. Henkels was making deliveries of muskets to the Philadelphia Arsenal in March of 1813 in the name of Winner, Nippes and Steinman. Under Daniel Henkels (listed in the 1814 Philadelphia City Directory as gunsmith and sword maker on St. John St.), the Cavalry sword remained the same, but the scabbard changed to the one accepted in the Starr contract with Callender Irvine March 1813. The cumbersome scabbard of the Virginia style is replaced with the slimmer scabbard and mounts of the federal contract swords. Daniel Henkels continued the business relationship developed with J. Joseph Henry. In fact, it seemed to become even closer. On 1 November 1814, Joseph Henry sold Henkels a home on the corner of Tammany and Fourth, and even goes so far as to as to give Henkels a share in Henry's 1/50th interest in the Schooner Revenge. On 8 July 1813, J. Joseph Henry entered into a contract with the State of Maryland for muskets. Henry, seeing an opportunity, extended an offer to also provide swords. According to the Henry Day Books,17 Daniel Henkels is providing the hilted swords, with the Henry factory furnishing most of the scabbards. For example, 5 December 1812 finds Jacob Seyfried filing 255 sword bands and John Allen filing 220 studs for the sword bands. Henkels was often paid for grinding scabbards.
The Maryland sword contract proved to be a winning proposition for Henkels and even more so for Henry. The margin for profit on the federal contracts was very slim. On the 1808 musket contracts there was no profit margin at all. The arms makers during the War of 1812, even those with federal contracts, were delinquent on their contracts because they were selling their goods out the back door to South America as previously discussed or to state militias for considerably more money. The first delivery of swords to Maryland by Henry was 17 July 1813 for 51 swords, with one being left as a pattern. On 8 July 1814, Henry delivered 111 swords to Maryland for $1065 or $9.50 per sword. On 9 July 1814 Henry payed Henkels $638.00 for 111 sword blades and hilts of $5.75 per sword and $20.00 for delivering the swords to Maryland.18 This is in contrast to the Nathan Starr contract with the U.S. Government which provided swords for $6.00 each, with leather scabbard; the revised contract raised the price to $8.00 including the iron scabbard. Henry is selling his sword (including scabbard) to Maryland for $1.50 apiece more than he could get from the United States. His cost is $5.75 per sword. Even with Starr's charge of $2.00 per scabbard, he is still showing a profit of $1.75 on each sword delivered. The final delivery of swords to the State of Maryland was March 1815. To put an end to the story, Winner, seeing all his dreams vanish, finds solace in alcohol. On 13 April 1812 as reported in the minutes of the Philadelphia Masonic Lodge No. 2,19 a committee of Masons was appointed to inquire into the circumstances of Brother Winner's family; finding them in distress, they were given the sum of ten dollars. In a letter to the Secretary of War dated 3 July 1813, Callender Irvine described James Winner as "an ingenious man, but mutable and certainly has been, if he is not, intemperate.Winner is perhaps the best sword blade maker on the Continent but he cannot be kept at it."20 Winner returned to work at the Virginia Manufactory of arms by 1814,21 and in 1817 by order of the ordnance department, was paid by James Stubblefield for inspecting arms in Greenville, South Carolina. One little side note regarding Henkels and Henry, Henkels signed a 60-day note on 1 November 1816 for $300.00, which was endorsed by J. Joseph Henry.22 John Goodman, Notary Public stated the following on 1 December 1817:
Wartime profits created "one-time wonders": Daniel Henkels, swordmaker and gunmaker in 1816, in debt in 1817, is found in the 1820 census records for Harpers Ferry24 as a barrel borer. The 183025 and 184026 census records list Daniel Henkels in Peoria County, Illinois. Jacob Shough, Inspector of Arms from February 1810 to March 1811, found employment with J. Joseph Henry. Shough, resided at 181 Noble St., near the Henry gun manufactory, and continued his endorsement of Dr. Robertson's Family Medicines. The 1820 census records for Harpers Ferry27 list Jacob Shough as a musket stocker. Mr. Shough died in Fayette County, Ohio after 1850.28 Henry Deringer, in a letter dated 1816 to the Naval Commissioners, had on hand brass hilted swords for sale "those are steel and brass mounted; blades from 30 to 33 inches in length and crooked bladed broad hollow or wide channel. Those swords is generally used for non-commissioned officers."29 The above description of blades is far from the description of the Maryland sword. In fact, no further mention of swords in connection with Henry Deringer is found. Mr. Deringer earns a place in history with his name synonymous with the small pistol "The Derringer". In a letter from Callander Irvine to Benjamin Mifflin 26 August 1812,30 Irvine asks Mifflin to contract with J. Joseph Henry for swords with iron scabbards, not to exceed 3,000. This letter has prompted much speculation on a contract between Henry and the U.S. for swords. In actuality, Mifflin's last entry in the letterbooks was on Friday 29 August 1812, without any message being forwarded to Henry for swords. Mifflin died on 2 September; no further mention is made in this period of Henry and swords by Callander Irvine. John Joseph Henry closed the Philadelphia manufactory and moved the entire operation to Boulton, Pa. in 1822. According to the information contained in the Henry Papers in the Hagley Library in Wilmington, Delaware, J. Joseph Henry began a very profitable business in guns for the Indian fur trade and with John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company. John Joseph Henry died in Boulton, Pennsylvania, in 1836. Every swordmaker, like every gunsmith puts a little of their own personality and style into their product. An 1813 horseman sword by Nathan Starr, when compared with the same contract and pattern to the sword by William Rose is similar, but each has its own subtle differences. The "Maryland Swords", whether or not marked with the block M are too similar to merit different creators. I believe the subtleties are from different craftsmen working in the same shop. With this idea in mind, the physical evidence previously provided: 1. The historical provenance from Virginia to Philadelphia to Maryland; I am of the opinion that the "Maryland Swords" are definitely a product of Northern Liberties Township of Philadelphia, and the craftsmen from the workshops of Winner, Nippes, and Henry under the direction of Daniel Henkels (Figure 7). The swords delivered by Henry to Maryland should by all rights be called Henkels' Swords. Notes
Bibliography
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2005, All Rights Reserved
American Society of Arms Collectors Revised 5 March 2005
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