Caroline Antique Treasures

We welcome you to the first installment of the Caroline Antique Treasures (CAT).  CAT is a monthly article that will feature various antique treasures from around the area.  If you have an item that you would like to include in a future article, please contact us at CATreasures2026@gmail.com.

This first article is in honor of the 250^th Anniversary of the United States.  We are featuring the sword from the American Revolution carried by former Caroline County resident, Peter Hardcastle.  Peter was the younger brother of Thomas Hardcastle of Castle Hall.

According to Owen Lourie, Senior Research Archivist at Maryland State Archives, Peter enlisted in 1776 as a Sergeant in Captain James Hindman’s 4^th Independent Company.  The 4^th and two other Independent Companies joined the nine Companies of Colonel William Smallwood’s First Maryland Regiment to support the Continental Army at the Battle of Brooklyn (Battle of Long Island).  It was here that Hardcastle and his fellow Marylanders came to be known as the “Maryland 400” and was the basis of the Maryland’s nickname of the “Old Line State.”

He was commissioned an Ensign in 1777 in the 7^th Maryland Regiment and fought at Brandywine and Germantown.  He was promoted to 2^nd Lieutenant and fought with his unit at the Battle of Monmouth.  He was promoted again to 1^st Lieutenant and fought with his unit at the Battle of Camden.  Hardcastle was transferred to the 4^th Regiment where he fought at the Battle of Yorktown and resigned in 1782.

These swords with heart-shaped counterguards were common infantry hangers from the mid-18^th century which were made in Europe and used during the French and Indian War and later in the American Revolution.  Many were produced in England and Germany, but this one has a French connection due to the construction of the scabbard whose brass throat and drag appear to be French.

Hilt has a heart-shaped counterguard, knuckle bow, quillon, spiraled grip, and ball pommel.  All parts of the hilt are brass to include the grip.  Blade is unmarked and has a thin fuller along the back of the blade.  Blade is 23” long and 1 ¼” wide at the ricasso.  Scabbard is leather with brass throat and brass drag, in the French style with a brass throat that has a slot for a leather keeper and drag terminating in a ball.  Sword is 28” overall.