A sword belonging to a solider who fought in the final battle of the Revolutionary War will be put on display next month at the Museum of the American Revolution in Old City.
The weapon, donated to the museum by the soldier's descendants, was a gift from French military officer Marquis de Lafayette. He gave the swords to non-commissioned officers in the Continental Army’s Corps of Light Infantry, one of the units that fought in the Siege of Yorktown in 1781. The decisive battle in Virginia vanquished British forces and effectively ended hostilities on the path to securing American independence with the Treaty of Paris two years later.
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The iron, steel and brass swords were made in France and kept in leather scabbards. Lafayette purchased 400 of them in the winter of 1779-80 while lobbying the French government to provide more troops and naval support to the Continental Army, which had been mired in battle for nearly five years. The swords were engraved with the letters U.S.A. on their handles.
Provided Image/Museum of the American Revolution
French military officer Marquis de Lafayette gifted swords to non-commissioned officers in the Continental Army's Corps of Light Infantry in 1780. The sword shown above belonged to Sgt. Jeremiah Keeler, whose family has donated it to the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia.
Although American forces had turned the tide of the war during the battles of Lexington and Concord in 1777 — convincing France to join the effort to end British colonial rule in the colonies — the Continental Army was bogged down and in need of reinforcements from Europe.
When Lafayette returned to the United States with news that more troops and ships were on the way, he was put in command of the light infantry brigade in Virginia. The Continental Army was led in Yorktown by Lt. Col. Alexander Hamilton. The combined allied forces were overseen by General George Washington and Lt. Gen. Comte de Rochambeau.
Among the soldiers who received one of Lafeyette's swords was Sgt. Jeremiah Keeler, a former Connecticut militiaman who had joined the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. His family preserved the sword as an heirloom for generations, until the death of its most recent owner, in Michigan, prompted the donation to the Museum of the American Revolution. It's one of a few that have survived the centuries since the revolution.
“We are excited to share the story of this young Connecticut veteran of America’s first greatest generation with visitors from across the country and around the world," R. Scott Stephenson, president and CEO of the Museum of the American Revolution, said in a statement.
The Siege of Yorktown was a strategic operation to overwhelm the British as they became further embroiled in the Second Hundred Years' War with France and Spain back in Europe. The Continental Army could have chosen to attack British forces in New York, but instead opted to take the fight south to the British garrison in Yorktown commanded by Gen. Charles Cornwallis. The allied forces marched hundreds of miles from New York to Virginia, counting on French naval support to cut off access to British fleets at the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay.
Keeler, who rose to the level of sergeant under Lafayette, previously had lived through the Continental Army's winter encampment at Valley Forge in 1777-78 and had served in the Battle of Monmouth in 1778.
In Yorktown, the British and their Hessian allies were overmatched by about 20,000 to 9,000. The allies created a series of trenches to deplete British forces stationed at surrounding forts over a period of roughly three weeks. Although both sides primarily used artillery, muskets and rifles in combat, soldiers also were armed with smaller weapons like knives, swords, sabers and tomahawks for fighting in close quarters.
The Siege of Yorktown culminating with a momentous British surrender that marked the collapse of their war efforts in the colonies. The fighting resulted in the deaths of 88 American and French soldiers and 142 British soldiers, with hundreds more wounded on both sides.
When the war ended, Keeler used his sword from Lafayette as a crutch to make the long trek back to his hometown of Ridgefield about 450 miles north of the battlefield in Yorktown. The community is now home to the Keeler Tavern Museum & History Center, which occupies the home Keeler's brother owned in the years before the Revolutionary War. It operated as a tavern and inn until the early 20th century and later was purchased to be preserved by township residents in the 1960s.
In the decades after the Revolutionary War, Keeler posed with his sword for a daguerreotype that remains one of the only known photographs of a veteran shown with an object used in battle.
Keller's sword will be displayed in the museum's core exhibit beginning Nov. 5. It will placed alongside war artifacts belonging to Sgt. James Davenport, whose shoulder epaulets gifted from Lafayette are the only known surviving pair from a non-commissioned officer in the Continental Army.
