This presentation sword and metal scabbard was given to Colonel Samuel Henry Melcher, surgeon, U.S. Volunteers. The sword has extensive scroll work on the blade and silver “M S” on the brass hand guard; the blade is narrower than a standard officer’s sword.
Colonel Melcher was commissioned assistant surgeon of the 5th Missouri Infantry on May 7, 1861. After the Battle of Wilson’s Creek, he retrieved the body of General Nathaniel Lyon from the field. Following the Union army’s withdrawal from Springfield and the city’s capture by Confederate forces, Melcher remained behind to help treat the Wilson’s Creek wounded. Appointed a brigade surgeon on December 4, 1861, he then served as medical director of the Army of the Frontier. On January 8, 1863, Colonel Melcher was engaged in the Battle of Springfield against the forces of Confederate General John S. Marmaduke. Melcher organized the “Quinine Brigade,” a group of 400 hospital convalescents, who took up arms to defend the city during the battle. He continued to serve during Sterling Price’s Missouri raid in 1864.
Having lost the sight in one eye, Melcher resigned from the army on December 24, 1864. He moved to Chicago in 1897, where he lived with his daughter until his death in August 1915.
Image Courtesy Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield; WICR 30163
