·         Lt. Joseph G. Rosengarten was on Reynolds staff and fought with him at Gettysburg.

·         Rosengarten was assigned the honor of escorting Reynolds body after Gettysburg and later delivered the address at the dedication of the monument to Reynolds at Gettysburg.

·         The sword remains in untouched, uncleaned condition displaying a beautiful patina and was obtained directly from the descendants of Rosengarten.

The Rosengarten sword is a very high grade example of a model 1850 Staff and Field Officer’s Sword.   Note the gilded appendages, silver mock shagreen grip and rubies in the wrist guard eagle’s eyes.  The sword was presented to Lt. Joseph G. Rosengarten for gallantry exhibited at the Battle of Fredericksburg and is so inscribed.  Rosengarten was also awarded the position of Aide-de-Camp for General John F. Reynolds and was with Reynolds when he was killed during the first day’s action at Gettysburg on July 1, 1863.  Rosengarten was chosen to accompany Reynolds’ body when it was taken to his home town of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. just after the fighting ceased to deliver the commemoration speech in 1889 during the unveiling and ensuing dedication of Reynolds monument at Gettysburg.  It is interesting to note that Joseph Rosengartens brother Adolph was a member of the 12^th Pennsylvania Cavalry and was killed in action at the Battle of Gettysburg! 

A long 7 page story of Joseph Rosengarten's life from his obituary will be included with the sword.  Here are a few interesting excerpts:

·         He received his A.B. degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1852 at the early age of 17 and 3 years later the degree of M.A.  After graduation he studied law and was admitted to practice in 1856. 

·         After studying history and Roman law at the University of Heidelburg, he returned to this country in 1857 and shortly after “by a curious chance Mr. Rosengarten witnessed the first outbreak against slavery, the famous raid of John Brown.  He happened to be travelling as a guest with the Directors of the Pennsylvania Railroad (of which his father was one) on a tour of inspection.  The train stopped at Harper’s Ferry and there Mr. Rosengarten saw the attack made by the soldiers on the engine house in which John Brown had taken refuge.  He saw John Brown lying wounded and he gave a description of the hero in a vivid article contributed by him to the Atlantic Monthly in 1865.”

·         “Upon the outbreak of the war, he first joined a company of volunteers, Co. A of the Pennsylvania Artillery, which was made up largely of lawyers.  It included men like Chief Justice Mitchell, Judges Penrose and Hanna, Mr. R. C. McMurtrie, John G. Johnson, Charles Godfrey Leland, Geo. W. Biddle, Wm. Henry Rawle, and among the survivors of this company are Judge Wilson, Mr. C. Stuart Patterson and Mr. Frank Rosengarten.  Later he became enrolled in 121st Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, of the Corps of the Army of the Potomac.  His regiment was assigned to guard the city of Washington and subsequently passed further south.  In the engagement at Fredericksburg he distinguished himself for bravery, picking up the colors after four sergeants had been disabled and carrying them successfully through the engagement.  The attention of Major General John F. Reynolds was called to the act of the young officer and he was offered the post of Ordnance Officer and a member of General Reynolds’ staff.  He remained with General Reynolds until the battle of Gettysburg in which General Reynolds fell.  To Major Rosengarten was assigned the honor of bringing the body of the fallen hero to Lancaster.  His association with General Reynolds was intimate and he was the natural selection deputed to deliver the address at the dedication of the monument to Reynolds at Gettysburg in 1889.”

·         “Mr. Rosengarten’s services to the University of Pennsylvania constitute a chapter by itself.  From the day that he was graduated from the old college on Ninth Street, in 1852, up to his resignation as trustee in 1918, he was incessant in his efforts to help every movement looking toward the expansion of the university.  There is literally no department of the university which does not bear evidence of his interest and of his generosity.

At all times active in the affairs of the College Alumni Society, he served as president for many years, 1895 to 1905, and as a member of the board of managers up to a few years before his death.  It was as the representative of the Alumni Society that he was elected to the board of trustees in 1896; and in 1907, his Alma Mater paid tribute to the invaluable services rendered by his distinguished son to the nation, to research, as well as to the institution itself, by conferring upon him the honorary degree of LL.D.”

·         “No sketch, however brief, of Mr. Rosengarten’s life should fail to touch on his intimate association with the scholars, writers, statesmen, men in public life in many lands, in this country, in England, France, Germany, Austria, Holland, and Italy.  There are few men who had a large circle of acquaintance; and having a rare gift for friendship, he continued to maintain association with many of those with whom he was thrown into contact either in this city or through his frequent trips abroad.  He know the Darwins, father and son; he came into close touch with eminent writers and scholars like F. Max Muller, Thomas Hughes, Goldwin Smith, Herbert Spencer and Lord Bryce; he formed a friendship extending over many years with the de Rochambeau family and secured the passage of an act of Congress for the purchase of the letters of Washington to Rochambeau.  He knew the great trio of American literature, Longfellow, Emerson and Lowell; he had met all the Presidents from Buchanan to Wilson, and knew practically all the generals of the Civil War.

Mr. Rosengarten passed away quietly on January 14, 1921.

                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                 1921 Morris Jastrow, Jr."  

  # I1 - Price $37,500

The Death of General Reynolds