“He was about 30 yards out looking for sea shells,” said Patty Sacco of her husband, who was walking the sandy coast in Pensacola, Fla. “The waters were pretty clear, and he saw part of the handle sticking out from the sand. Pulled on it a couple times, and low and behold – a sword lol.”
What he found may be an artifact from the Civil War, according to the Florida Public Archaeology Network – Northwest Region.
Sacco posted about the find on social media via the All Things Emerald Coast Facebook page this week and it has since gone viral, with around 76,000 likes, 18,000 comments and nearly 8,000 shares. She then asked the Network about it. In another Facebook post, the group said it looks like a 19th-century American military sword.
“As always, it is worth mentioning that artifacts embedded in Florida waters are protected by Florida statute (Ch. 267) and they should not be removed,” said the group. “Instead, we encourage people who encounter potential artifacts to take a photo in place (if possible) and grab GPS coordinates of the object’s location. If the object is offshore and you don't have the ability to take coordinates in the water, you can also take coordinates from the nearest point on shore.”
However, people in the Facebook comments noted that the sword might have caused injury where it was left.
According to an article in the Pensacola News Journal, Nicole Grinnan, the organization’s interim executive director, said Sacco had reached out to them. Grinnan – who has not seen the sword in person – believes it is a heavy cavalry sword circa the 1840s.
“She reached out and she asked us what we thought about it but also what was the legality of the situation,” Grinnan explained. “This would have been used by members of the American military cavalry, typically. They’re riding on horseback, so it’s usually more like a ceremonial piece.”
She said that it could also be a more modern replica, as the oxidation of the sword as seen in photographs doesn’t indicate it has been in the water for more than a century. Still, based on the historical timeline, it is possible a Civil War soldier might have carrier a sword like this on the beach.
“Skirmishes unfolded during the Civil War between encampments of Union soldiers and the Confederacy at Fort Pickens, on the west end of Santa Rosa Island,” said the Pensacola News Journal article.
This isn’t the only sword from the past to pop up this year. Earlier this month, CNN reported that a 3,000-year-old blade was discovered in a Bavarian burial site.
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