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Sword belonging to Artemas Ward

Sword belonging to Artemas Ward Steel, ivory, silver, leather

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    [ This description is from the project: Revolutionary-era Art and Artifacts ]

    This cuttoe, an American Revolutionary War era sidearm known alternately as a hanger, or cutlass, belonged to Major General Artemas Ward (1727-1800).

    Artemas Ward was born in Shrewsbury, Mass. in 1727, the son of Nahum and Martha (How) Ward. He graduated from Harvard in 1748 and married Sarah Trowbridge of Groton in 1750. Ward was a colonel in the French and Indian Wars, a member of the provincial council, and general and commander-in-chief of the Massachusetts troops in 1775 until George Washington assumed command of the Continental Army. He was chief justice of the Worcester county court of common pleas, a member of the first and second Massachusetts provincial congress and the Continental Congress, the United States Congress and the Massachusetts legislature. He died in Shrewsbury in 1800.