Close-ups of the surgeon’s dress sword belonging to a Canadian veteran of the U.S. Civil War. [Alanna Belair/ Loyalist House Museum]
John F. Stevenson never needed to serve.
The 1861-65 American Civil War was not his fight—or perhaps it may have appeared that way to the St. Andrews, N.B., native and freshly Harvard-educated surgeon. But serve he did as a volunteer for the Union cause, joining approximately 40,000 other Canadians who fought on both sides—more than 7,000 of whom died. Stevenson was to be one of them.
He enlisted in the United States Medical Corps with the 29th Connecticut Infantry, a mostly Black regiment raised after the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation. “At the end of the war, he was on occupation or garrison duty in Texas when he took sick,” said Vice President Troy Middleton of the New Brunswick Historical Society. “Stevenson got leave to return home to recuperate but died en route.”
The sword is symbolic of the outsized role played by Stevenson and his compatriots, including 29 Canadian recipients of the Medal of Honor.
Among the late Canadian veteran’s possessions was his surgeon’s dress sword. Nickel-plated with engravings adorning the blade, its purpose was less practical and more decorative, but nevertheless symbolic of the outsized role played by Stevenson and his compatriots, including 29 Canadian recipients of the Medal of Honor—the highest and most revered military accolade in the U.S.
When Middleton found the sabre for sale by a private collector in Ontario, he and fellow local historian Harold Wright sought to purchase it. The original asking price of $8,000-$8,500 was subsequently lowered to $6,200 as a goodwill gesture, the hope being that it might find its rightful New Brunswick home. “We started a fundraising campaign to purchase the sword and bring it back to New Brunswick, and we were successful,” explained Middleton.
Stevenson’s sword is now proudly part of the Loyalist House Museum collection in Saint John, N.B.
Close-ups of the surgeon’s dress sword belonging to a Canadian veteran of the U.S. Civil War.[Alanna Belair/ Loyalist House Museum]
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