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LOT 3423
Historic B. Pasquale Co. Model 1852 Naval Officer’s Sword and Scabbard Presentation Inscribed to Rear Admiral Robley D. “Fighting Bob” Evans when
Commander of the Great White Fleet - The sword is a classic Model 1852 Navy Officer sword with a 30 inch blade with frosted patriotic etching, “PROVED/+” surrounded by a six pointed star on the right ricasso, and “B./PASQUALE/CO./SAN/ FRANCISCO/CAL.” etched on the left ricasso. The gilt brass hilt has oak leaf and
acorn, laurels, sea serpents, four rose colored stones where the knuckle guard meets the pommel, and a fouled anchor with blue enamel background
flanked by two white enamel stars with inset clear stones on the pommel cap. The black leather scabbard has gilt brass fittings with sea
serpent, naval ropes, fouled anchor, and foliate decoration, as well as “Presented to/COMRADE ROBLEY D. EVANS./BY HEINTZELMAN POST AND DATUS E. COON POST. G.A.R./BENNINGTON CAMP US. W.V. AND/
JOHN H. MORGAN CAMP/CONFEDERATE VETERANS/SAN DIEGO CAL. APRIL 14. 1908.” A copy of LIFE Vol. XXXI No. 811 from June 23, 1898,
is included showing Captain Robley on the cover with his arms crossed and armed to the teeth with a cutlass, pistol, Smith & Wesson Model No. 2 style revolver, knife, and a similar Model 1852 sword. Also included are a 13 3/8 by 24 5/8 inch framed display with two stereo cards of the USS Iowa, a portrait of Evans as a rear admiral holding a Model 1852 sword, and a card signed from Evans as captain and commander of the Iowa and
a copy of the July 12, 1980, bill of sale indicates this sword (listed as “from Heintzelman Post and Datus E. Coon Post G.A.R. by the Veterans of the Confederacy”) were sold by W.L. Kallos and Carol R. Kallos to Joseph Florest. William L. Kallos (d. 2003) was a noted collector and dealer from Illinois.
Rear Admiral Robley Dunglison Evans (1846-1912) had a long U.S. Navy military career
from the American Civil War up to very shortly after the presentation of this sword
when he was the commander of the Great White Fleet sent by President Theodore
Roosevelt on its famous world tour. Evans was born in Virginia but remained loyal to the Union during the Civil War. After studying at the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, starting in 1860, he completed his studies in time to join the fight for the Union. As an ensign serving on the USS Powhatan, he participated in the Second Battle of Fort Fisher and suffered four wounds during the U.S. Marines’ charge on the Confederate defenses. He took a shot across his chest, then below his left knee, another through the knee that put him down, and a fourth that took off the tip of one of his toes, but he wrote that he pulled his revolver and engaged the Confederate sharpshooter that had been targeting him and shot him through the throat. In the hospital, his life was in jeopardy, and a surgeon suggested amputation. Instead of allowing them to amputate, he drew his revolver and said he’d kill six men before he’d let them take his leg. This incident was captured in a song composed in his honor upon his death by the Benztown Bard titled “Fighting Bob Evans Gone” which included the lines “Fighting Bob Evans dead? Honor his sword! Fighting Bob Evans gone? How can it be! Weep for him, wailing winds; weep for him, sea! Weep for the noble lad there at Fort Fisher. Standing the doctors off; coming a swisher With that old revolver aide dead in their faces, and daring them one and all to come twenty paces To cut any leg off that he owned!”
Rear Admiral Robley D. "Fighting Bob" Evans