Get to know Lieutenant Frederick D. Burnham and his sword.
Lieutenant Frederick D. Burnham Company K, 97th U.S. Colored Infantry (formerly 3rd Corps d’Afrique Engineers) Inscribed: F.D. Burnham. /Newburyport. /Mass.
Eighteen-year-old Lieutenant Burnham was carrying this sword as he led his men across a bridge over the Escambia River in western Florida, December 17, 1864. Confederate buckshot shattered his left leg, effectively ending his brief service with the USCT.
Get to know Col. William Francis Wood and his sword.
Wood was the colonel who led the 46th Regiment of the United States Colored Infantry, a group of infantrymen of African descent out of Arkansas. Jones talks about why Wood’s sword represented freedom for all who fought with the 46th Regiment.