First Saturdays: Washington’s Pistols

When telling the tale of Washington’s Pistols, one of the first tasks is to confirm which pistols you are speaking of. In addition to serving as Founding Father, Commanding General of our Revolutionary Armies and first President of the United States, the man also amassed quite a collection of pistols during his lifetime, often given as gifts and tokens of affection and admiration.

One set of Washington’s Pistols, which currently resides in the collection of the West Point Museum, originally began as the purchase of Col. Thomas Turner in the mid-1700s. In April of 1778, they were presented as a gift to General Washington while wintering at Valley Forge. Washington kept the pistols another twenty years, then gifting them to Batholomew Dandridge, Jr., his personal secretary and nephew of his wife Martha. And from there, the pistols were bequeathed, gifted, sold and passed along a number of times – even passing through the hands of local arms collector Francis Bannerman of island/arsenal fame, before finally arriving at and become an important part of the collection at West Point – a most fitting repository.

Another famous set of Washington’s pistols were given to him by the Marquis de Lafayette, and were reportedly carried by the Father of our Country at several notable Revolutionary War battles. Upon his death, the pistols found their way to President Andrew Jackson, who called them “sacred and holy relics.”

Where they went after Jackson… is another story.

Visit the Lincoln Depot Museum on Nov. 2nd to hear those stories, and others, about Washington’s Pistols!