Beschreibung:

30" spear point elliptical blade with etched panels of floral designs and military motifs. Solid brass handle with acorn pommel and floral designs and eagle. The guard is two scrolled quillons decorated with leaf motifs and two shields. Gilt brass scabbard with bands of floral designs. HISTORY Stephen M. Cobb (1819-1892) joined the 35th Iowa raised in Muscatine as Assistant Surgeon on Sept. 16, 1862. The regiment left the state in November bound for Cairo where it remained until April 1863 on post and garrison duty. With the Vicksburg Campaign underway the 35th Iowa was ordered to Duckport, Louisiana and assigned to Brigadier General J.M. Tuttle's division in the15th Corps. Sherman's Corps moved to unite with the main army in the rear of Vicksburg via Grand Gulf in early May, the regiment seeing their first action at Jackson, Mississippi on May 14, 1863. Thereafter, the brigade participated in the Siege of Vicksburg and joined in the twin assaults of May 19 and 22 without suffering any casualties. Following the fall of Vicksburg the regiment marched to the Siege of nearby Jackson where it peripherally engaged on July 12 loosing several men as prisoners. The 35th was in camp at Bear Creek when Cobb was promoted to regimental Surgeon on August 15, 1863. Over the next several months Iowan's participated in several expeditions without making significant contact with Rebel forces. In November the regiment was ordered to Memphis and then to LaGrange where it wintered while engaged in railroad guard duty. The Hawkeye's fought at sharp skirmish at Middleton, Tennessee on January 15, 1864 suffering a handful of casualties. The 16th Corps then consolidated and joined in the ill-fated Red River Campaign beginning in March 1864. The regiment's first major fight came at Pleasant Hill on April 9, an extension of the disaster at Mansfield the day before resulting in a general retreat by Banks' army. General Richard Taylor's Trans-Mississippi Army kept a close pursuit of the disorganized Federal column with heavy skirmishing and launched a coordinated attack late in the afternoon "charging the entire Union line." Initially, the momentum of two Confederate divisions succeeded in overrunning part of the Union left and center forcing it back. Anchored by the right, the Federals managed to stabilize the situation and organize a counterattack that drove the spent Confederates from the field. Banks continued his withdrawal during the night leaving the field in the hands of Richard Taylor's army but victory was apocryphal. Seven companies of the 35th actually fought at Pleasant Hill with 48 men killed and wounded and 3 prisoners. For the first time since the start of the campaign Surgeon Cobb was undoubtedly overwhelmed with casualties for his diary is completely void of entries between April 5 and April 20. The rest of 1864 would prove to be of equal tempo and greater ferocity. The Red River Campaign - a grandiose, ill-conceived plan to capture Mobile - slowly unwound completely to the detriment of General Banks and ended ingloriously with the week long retreat from Morganza to the Mississippi River. Learning that a portion of Taylor's army was advancing from of Bayou de Glaize, Bank's ordered A. J. Smith's 16th Corps to attack immediately on May 18. Being too distant to effect the order, Smith in turn instructed the advance led by Brigadier General Joseph A. Mower to execute an assault with the two divisions at hand. Mower attacked at Yellow Bayou and drove the Confederate screen back on to the main body before the Rebels counterattacked forcing Mower to give ground. The see-saw action lasted several hours before burning scrub pine ignited a massive conflagration causing both sides to retire. The 35th Iowa was heavily engaged throughout and lost 3 killed and 16 wounded. On May 20 the brigade was ordered to Vicksburg, thence to Memphis. The regiment next fought a costly action at Old River Lake, Arkansas on June 6 where two brigades of Mower's divi