Description:
Cast iron and steel dagger with an iron ball on the handle end, which is characteristic of the small military weapons used in New England. The original data card identifies this dagger as listed in the "Catalogue of the Collection of Relics in Memorial Hall Deerfield, Mass U.S.A. Gathered and Preserved by the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association" (PVMA, 1920) as "11. Knife" donated by Charles Jones. However, it has been suggested that this dagger probably is the bayonet listed in the Military Room listed as "47. Bayonet. Old style. Dug up at Bloody Brook" donated by George Reynolds. The raid on Bloody Brook took place six miles south of Deerfield (now South Deerfield) on Sept. 18, 1675. This dagger was in the 1982 exhibition, "New England Begins: The Seventeenth Century," in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. In his catalogue entry, Robert Trent notes that daggers were ordinarily used with swords to fend off sword blows and only rarely used for stabbing. The feature that identifies this dagger as a military weapon is the heavy cast-iron pommel, similar to those seen on swords. The spine of the blade is reinforced by a distinct ridge, and the blade tapers across its width toward the single sharp edge. Missing are its wooden, leather-covered grip and perhaps a quillion, or crosspiece, next to the blade. The dagger was also in an exhibit at the Peabody Museum in 1992, titled "We Claim These Shores: Native American and the European Settlement of Massachusetts Bay." The dagger was originally a sword pommel which was later ground down to its current form. The forge marks on the blade suggest it was reformed to an extent many decades ago. The metal is consistent with the type forged in Hounslow, then just west of London (today within its boundaries), where a military encampment included forges to supply its troops.
Tags:
military; wars Link to share this object record:
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