Now on View: Jeremiah Keeler's Revolutionary War Sword

Continental Army soldier Jeremiah Keeler's sword, given to him by the Marquis de Lafayette and carried at the Siege of Yorktown in 1781 alongside Alexander Hamilton, is now on public display in the Museum's core exhibition. It was recently announced that the sword was donated to the Museum.

Keeler, who was born in Ridgefield, Connecticut, in 1760 and initially served in the Connecticut militia as a teenager, is said to have used the sword as a crutch on his long walk home at the end of the Revolutionary War. At the Siege of Yorktown, Keeler and his comrades in the Corps of Light Infantry famously assaulted a British redoubt which led the Continental Army and its French allies to victory. Alexander Hamilton commanded that brave attack. Now, this witness object will help to tell the stories of common soldiers whose service and sacrifice contributed to the founding of the American nation.

The sword was donated by Keeler’s great-great-great-great granddaughter, Suzanne Reynolds of Birmingham, Michigan, alongside her two sisters and her son, in memory of her mother, Helene Keeler Spangler. Reynolds said her mother cherished the sword her whole life as a symbol of pride in her heritage.

Keeler’s sword is now on display next to items owned by Sergeant James Davenport, who served alongside Keeler in the Corps of Light Infantry. The three Davenport-related artifacts, all gifts of James B. Richardson III, include the only known surviving pair of shoulder epaulettes from a non-commissioned officer in the Continental Army, small red baby booties that were likely made from a British soldier’s coat, and Hessian grenadier-shaped andirons supported logs in the Davenport family fireplace. The display in the Suzanne and Norman Cohn Exhibition Case in the final gallery of the Museum's core exhibition will be on view for the next year.