CIVIL WAR CAVALRY PRESENTATION SWORD TO LIEUT ALEX M GUTHRIE DATED 9- 8 -1863

PRESERVING HISTORY, CIVIL WAR CAVALRY PRESENTATION SWORD TO LIEUT ALEX M GUTHRIE FROM HIS CHICAGO FRIENDS SEPT 8 1863 Fine condition Light Cavalry Officers Saber presentation engraved in 1863. Excellent condition in its original polished plain steel scabbard.The knucklebow is inscribed on the reverse LIEUT. ALEX. M. GUTHRIE / from his Chicago friends Sep 8 1863. Alexander Murray Guthrie (1842-1899) was a member of a prominent Pittsburg family and went to Chicago to study law with his uncle, John V. LeMoyne. According to his 1899 obituary, “when he reached his majority he obtained a second lieutenant’s commission in the First Independent battalion, Ohio cavalry, in which he served throughout the war.” This seems to be confusion with the 4th Independent Battalion of Ohio Volunteer Cavalry, one of two (4th and 5th) raised in the summer of 1863 for six months service, likely in response to John Hunt Morgan’s 1863 raid: several of the companies engaged in chasing him even before