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     Columbus, Georgia sword makers Louis and Elias Haiman operated the largest sword manufactory within the Southern Confederacy.  They rented the top floor of a building at the corner of Thomas and Short streets, right beside the Haiman armory.  Here they set up the Confederate States Sword Factory.  They produced more cavalry swords for the Confederacy than all the other manufactures combined.  They also made fine officer’s swords, though in very limited number.  The officer’s swords were made not for the Confederacy, but for the retail trade to Confederate officers.  They were etched by a local Columbus jeweler by the name of Spear, or a man named Kinsel.  The Haiman’s sold their officer’s sword at a street level showroom on Broad Street.  These swords were made with an etched panel, which could be personalized at the purchaser’s request.  This example has the panel, but it was never filled in.  The company advertised “at reasonable prices for officers and sergeants, finished in the best quality for sale at the Confederate states Sword factory of Columbus, GA.  We can furnish officers swords with belts for $25 or $22 if four were ordered in one lot.  Our swords are tested according the rules laid down by the Manual of War.”  The company also produced brass belt plates and cartridge boxes, leather bayonet mountings, camp stove parts, shotgun bayonets, rifle bayonets, wagon covers, revolvers, (they had a contract for 10,000, but very few were produced) mess plates and tin cups.

     With the exception of their enlisted cavalry sword, Haiman swords are extremely rare and beautiful.  This Haiman copy of a model 1833 Dragoon sword is likely their rarest.  This particular example has the defect of having three inches of the tip replaced.  It is otherwise virtually perfect.  The grip and wrap are virtually perfect, the guard is perfect.  The guard is tight.  The throat washer is a replacement.  It is a thing of beauty.  The guard is heavily gilted.  The blade has several edge nicks and is deeply etched with the maker’s name: L. Haiman & Bro. Columbus GA.  The blade is profusely etched with vines, flags, artillery, shields, horns, drums, battle axes, quivers, and right in the middle, written large in Latin:  DEO VINDICE surrounded by a laurel wreath.  Deo Vindice translates “God will Vindicate”, meaning of course, that God will vindicate the course chosen by the states in defense of their homes and hearths.

     The sword is sheathed in its original scabbard.  The scabbard is perfect.  It does not have a single dent.  It retains nearly all of its original paint.  The mounts are decorated with laurel leaf and retain remnants of their original gilt.

     This exact sword is published on page 305 of American Swords and Sword Makers.