From the March 26, 2012, Auction Central News by Wally Spiers of the Belleville (Il) News-Democrat.
Allen Wandling held the old Confederate sword over the grave of its owner in Corinth, Mississippi and swears he felt the hair on his arms stand on end, "It was spooky."
He was at the grave of Confederate Col. William P. Rogers, killed at the Battle of Corinth on Oct. 4, 1862. He had bought the sword from a man in Joplin, Missouri, but the sword had been in Belleville, Illinois, for many years after the war where it most likely was a war momento in the local GAR post. Wandling has spent four years tracing the sword's history.
Wandling had bought the leather scabbard for the sword in 2006 from the man in Joplin who said his grandfather had inherited it from a sister who was married to a Belleville police officer, who had bought it when the GAR (Grand Army of the Republic) Hall had sold it at auction.
The scabbard did not have its drag, the brass tip of it,and Wandling had the man promise him to contact him if it was found. They also didn't have the sword. Six months later, he bought the drag, but still not the sword. What good is a scabbard without its sword?
The Sword Cometh. --Old Secesh
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