Scenes from Civil War New York: The Department of Arms and Trophies

ECW is pleased to welcome back Jonathan W. White and Timothy Justin Orr, authors of New York City in the Civil War (Arcadia, 2025) with another scene from Civil War New York. Part of a series.

The Department of Arms and Trophies at the Great Metropolitan Fair was “very near the heart of most visitors,” wrote one observer, because it was “more intimately, than any other department, connected with the struggle whose needs had raised these buildings.” Among the many “Revolutionary Relics” on display were a powder horn that had been owned by Benedict Arnold; spontoons, blunderbusses, bayonets, swords, and flags; guns and other artifacts from Bunker Hill, Saratoga, and Yorktown; weapons that had been captured from the Hessians at Trenton; a nail from the executed British spy Major John Andre’s coffin; the Marquis de Lafayette’s sword, camp kettle, and looking glass; and George Washington’s sword, coat, vest, breeches, camp chest, writing case, teaboard, fire shovel, dishes, and cane.

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Today’s scene relates to Chapter Ten in Jonathan and Tim’s book New York City in the Civil War, part of the Images of America Series from Arcadia Press.