Strong Vincent's Sword

Physical Description

Forged steel with decorated scabbard.

Specific History

Strong Vincent used this sword at Gettysburg. The Model 1850 Staff and Field Officers sword was made by W.H. Horstmann & Sons of Philadelphia. Vincent's widow had brass plagues placed on the scabbard to commemorate her husband's service and sacrifice.

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."