Preserving and Sharing Rhode Island History
Here are some before-and-after images of our newly renovated storage room and accessible bathroom at the Varnum Memorial Armory Museum. For those who remember the old “rustic” downstairs men’s bathroom, this is a pretty amazing transformation. We look forward to making this room a productive part of the armory museum again.
Check out this long-form video interview with Patrick Donovan, curator/VP at the Varnum Memorial Armory Museum, by “Rhode Island Wave”.
In addition to the interview, Patrick takes on on detailed walk-through of the Armory and talks about some of the more amazing historical exhibits and stories contained within the Armory walls.
Watch the video here!
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We’ve walked past this artwork at the Varnum Memorial Armory Museum for years without giving it much thought (believing it was 1990s computer-generated dot art). Boy, were we wrong…
This is an engraving from 1865 where a calligrapher cleverly shaded their penmanship to create a facsimile of Gilbert Stuart’s portrait of George Washington using the words of the U.S. Constitution. Here is a description of one in the collection at Mt. Vernon:
“During the 19th century, America’s founding documents – the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence – inspired numerous artists and publishers to produce decorative versions, suitable for framing and display. In this calligraphy portrait, the artist has cleverly shaded the words of the Constitution and amendments, so that George Washington’s face emerges from the text.
Washington’s likeness is based on Gilbert Stuart’s popular ‘Athenaeum’ portrait, originally painted in 1796 and widely copied in paintings, prints, textiles, china, and the dollar bill. Washington’s name also appears, as a signer, at the center edge of his coat collar, about half-way down the white cravat.
The text ends with the 13th amendment’s prohibition of slavery, suggesting a creation date shortly after 1865, but before the passage of the 14th amendment in mid-1866 or its ratification in 1868. Notably, Washington’s portrait did not make its first debut on the dollar bill until 1869.
The artist, William Henry Pratt (1822-1893), was a professor of penmanship in Davenport, Iowa, and the first curator of that city’s Academy of Natural Sciences. He collaborated with the Davenport lithography firm of August Hageboeck on at least three other calligraphy portraits: Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation, Washington and the Declaration of Independence, and Ulysses Grant and the Republican Party platform of 1868.”
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Airman Stephen E. Roomes (left) of Providence, RI, was the first and only Black American to serve in the Air Force’s first “Prime BEEF” unit (Prime Base Engineer Emergency Force). This highly rapid deployment, special civil engineering unit was created to establish and maintain bases and airfields, as well as respond to chemical, biological, and radiological emergencies.
Stephen served in the Korean War as well as Vietnam War. He and his son, Jason, are direct descendants of Caesar Roomes who had been freed from enslavement to serve in the 1st Rhode Island “Black” Regiment during the American Revolutionary War.
A collection of Stephen’s things will go on display soon at the Varnum Memorial Armory Museum in a new Cold War exhibit.
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At the Varnum Memorial Armory Museum, we gave an in-depth tour for a group of new Rhode Island National Guard recruits as part of their Recruit Sustainment Program. They loved it! So did the officers present they want to make this a regular part of their program.
They expressed how important it is to learn how their military heritage builds toward a sense of inclusion, teamwork, and esprit de corps. We are proud to support these future American soldiers.
The Varnum Continentals are excited to work with the Rhode Island Foundation, Rhode Island Historical Society, and the Rhode Island Black Heritage Society to introduce teachers to a new public school curriculum on the famed First Rhode Island Regiment of the Revolutionary War. Artifacts from the Varnum Armory Museum are a part of the program.
The Varnum House Museum will be open to the public for the 2022 tour season on Sundays from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM weekly starting on July 10, 2022. Tours for groups are available by appointment.
Visit the 1773 mansion of General James Mitchell Varnum, a prominent figure in the Revolutionary War and early-American politics. An on-site colonial herb garden includes dye and medicinal plants that are appropriate to the era.
Open to the public on Sundays from 1:00 to 3:00 PM.
Available by appointment.
401-884-1776 or email house@varnumcontinentals.org
If you weren’t able to watch the PBS documentary “A Stitch in Time” on it’s original May 29 air date, we’ve got you covered!
Follow the link to watch this fascinating half-hour documentary showing the journey of America’s oldest colonial militia flag, from the First Company of Bristol County Militia in the 1690s to the present day, as it undergoes delicate conservation at the Varnum Memorial Armory Museum under the eye of an expert textile conservator.
There are few military exercises as thrilling as the charge of a cavalry unit, sabers flashing as they face off against the enemy. Of course, with today’s advanced military weaponry, the saber or sword has been relegated to ceremonial use.
However, as recently as the early days of World War II, you could have witnessed a cavalry charge. Two such events, considered to have been the last of them, took place in 1942. In January, the U.S. 26th Cavalry mounted a charge and scattered a group of Japanese troops in a skirmish on the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines (later, the starving cavalrymen were forced to eat their horses as they fought against superior enemy forces). On August 23 (or 24), a unit of Italian cavalry using sabers and hand grenades conducted a successful charge against Soviet troops armed with machine guns and mortars in a battle along the Don River.
In the Varnum Memorial Armory Museum collection, we have an outstanding representation of American and foreign saber evolution. Among them is the last American design: the M1913 Army model, designed and advocated by none other than General (at the time, Lieutenant) George S. Patton, Jr. His design, in the strict sense, is a sword and not a saber since it employs a straight (rather than curved) blade. It was based on the British M1908 weapon. Patton’s relatively lightweight saber uses a large, basket-shaped hilt and a double-edged straight blade designed for thrusting at an opponent, rather than the slashing motion used in a traditional saber attack. The blade is 35.25-inches long and the overall weight is 2 pounds, 13 ounces.
In the early 20th century, the U.S. Army had decided to replace the cavalry saber model that had been in use since 1861 (see below). At the time, Patton, a passionate believer in the power of the saber, was “Master of the Sword” at the Mounted Service School, at Fort Riley, Kansas.
A highly accomplished swordsman who had competed in the Olympics and trained in Europe where he perfected his aggressive thrust attack pattern, George Patton was known among his peers as “Saber George.” On his return from training with the best fencing master in Europe, Monsieur Clery, Patton told the Army’s Adjutant General, “The whole French system of mounted saber fencing is concentrated in the word, ‘attack!’” (Napoleon at the Battle of Wagram, before the cavalry of the guard passed in review prior to a charge, the French Emperor called to them, “Don’t Cut! The Point! The Point!”. In other words, attack your enemy with your saber. That single word “Attack!” would become synonymous with Patton’s entire Army service.
While at Fort Riley, Patton designed a radical new weapon and prepared a detailed training manual for its mounted and dismounted use. The official manual he authored in 1914 outlined both mounted and dismounted saber techniques emphasizing the aggressive “cut and thrust” attack. With his typical assertive style, he managed to have his saber approved for general issue.
Quoting from then Lieutenant Patton’s report:
“In the Peninsula War the English nearly always used the sword for cutting. The French dragoons, on the contrary, used only the point which, with their long straight swords caused almost always a fatal wound. This made the English protest that the French did not fight fair. Marshal Saxe wished to arm the French cavalry with a blade of a triangular cross section so as to make the use of the point obligatory. At Wagram, when the cavalry of the guard passed in review before a charge, Napoleon called to them, ‘Don’t cut! The point! The point!’”
The saber commonly used by U.S. Cavalry units up until the acceptance of Patton’s saber was the M1906, which had changed little from the curved weapons carried by U.S. cavalry units in the American Civil, Western Indian, and Spanish-American Wars. In 1846, the preferred weapon of Army officers was the saber and West Point cadets were drilled in its use. The Varnum Memorial Armory Museum is also home to a Model 1872 officer’s saber, which is representative of the style of weapon that immediately preceded the implementation of Patton’s design.
But the Patton weapon did not have a long use. At the beginning of the American involvement in World War I, several U.S. cavalry units armed with the M1913 were sent to the front, but they were held back. Horse-mounted troops were easy prey for enemy troops equipped with Gewehr 98 rifles and MG08 machine guns (examples of both are also in the Varnum Armory collection). Those cavalrymen who saw combat did so dismounted, using their horses only to travel.
Although an avid swordsman, Patton readily recognized that warfare was rapidly changing. He adapted his style of “move forward and attack” to his use of tanks in battle, a technique that became his trademark combat style in World War II. Patton had gone to war as an aide to General Pershing with whom he had also fought in the pre-war punitive action against Mexican outlaws. The fiery Patton was not interested in a rear echelon position and was able to secure a role in organizing the Army’s tank warfare program. Wounded in action, he successfully demonstrated the effectiveness of the tank in battle and ended the war as a Lieutenant Colonel. Typical of Patton, he visualized the future role of armor in warfare and continued to advocate for its use between the two world wars. (On a side note, Patton joined with Dwight D. Eisenhower in the early development of tank warfare during and after World War I.
The Patton Saber in the Varnum Armory Museum collection is 44-inches long overall, hilt to blade tip. The blade is two-edged, straight and tapered, and made of forged steel. The front edge runs the whole length of the blade and is double-edged for half its length. It has bloodletting grooves running down each side of the blade to within 4 ¾ inches of the point. The grips are hard black rubber. The basket guard is sheet steel. The hickory wood scabbard is covered with rawhide and waterproofed olive drab canvas, woven to eliminate a seam. Considering the weight of the bell and grip assembly, it is balanced much closer to the hand than the typical weapon associated with the name “cavalry saber,” reinforcing Patton’s intention that it was to be used to thrust, rather than slash at an opponent (Remember, “The point! The point!”). However, Patton himself never had the opportunity to use his weapon in battle.
The Model M1913 was also known as the Enlisted Cavalry Saber and between 1913 and 1918, the Springfield (Massachusetts) Armory produced over 35,000 units. These were marked “SA” and carried a serial number. Only a few thousand of these remain and are avid sought by militaria collectors. Another 93,000 were produced by a civilian contractor, Landers, Frary, and Clark between 1917 and 1918. These carry no serial number but are marked with the letters LF&A to distinguish them. At the outbreak of World War II, many of the Patton Swords were cut up for use as trench knives by soldiers and drop knives used by OSS agents. These weapons are also collectable.
In 1934, the Adjutant General’s office discontinued issuing the saber to the cavalry. Its days as a military weapon were over. Despite strong lobbying by many supporters including Patton, who tried valiantly in 1938 to keep the weapon in use, the decision was made just prior to the start of World War II to place the majority of sabers in storage and use them only for ceremonial purposes. In 1941, the Springfield Armory was already gearing up for massive production of the Army’s Garand rifle.
As noted, Patton went on to polish his reputation as a commander who transferred his assertive saber technique to the fast-moving armored warfare through the course of World War II. He replaced his saber with his trademark ivory handled pistols. Always at the head of his commands, Patton was instrumental in giving the Army armor its nickname of “hell on wheels.”
Today, in the hands of a trained expert, the saber still presents a powerful reminder of its role in war. The “Master of the Sword” still exists in the U.S. Army. At the West Point Military Academy, the head of the Department of Physical Education who is responsible for both an academic and non-academic physical program carries the title. Patton held the title at Fort Riley simultaneously to the officer assigned to the role at West Point where the “Master” or MOSH as he (or she) is known, has existed since the academy’s first Master of the Sword, Pierre Thomas, was appointed in 1814. And, yes, a woman has held the position. Col. Maureen LeBoeuf served as MOSH between 1997 to 2004.
The entire Varnum Memorial Armory Museum collection of swords and sabers, including the Patton Saber, can excite the imagination, calling to mind the skill and training required to successfully use these weapons in combat as well as their use as ceremonial accessories.
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 | “War As I Knew It” by George S. Patton |
 | “Saber Exercise 1914” by Lt. George S. Patton Jr. |
 | “Diary of the Instructor in Swordsmanship” by George S. Patton Jr. |
 | “George S. Patton: An Outstanding General. The Entire Life Story. Biography, Facts & Quotes” by The History Hour |
 | “George S. Patton: On Guts, Glory, and Winning” by Gary L. Bloomfield |
 | “Patton: The Man Behind the Legend, 1885-1945” by Martin Blumenson |
 | “Patton: Blood, Guts, and Prayer” by Michael Keane |
 | “Patton: Ordeal and Triumph“ by Ladislas Farago |
 | “I Marched with Patton: A Firsthand Account of World War II Alongside One of the U.S. Army’s Greatest Generals” by Robert L. Wise |
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