<p>The story of Jim Bowie's last stand at the Alamo with his famous knife was a 25 year-old legend when the Southern boys took up arms against the Northern invaders. In the era of unreliable flintlock and percussion arms, a fighting knife as a back-up weapon that never fails had become standard equipment for citizens, hunters and soldiers alike, especially in the rural South. In this antebellum knife-culture, most knives were of modest practical proportions, crafted by local artisans or imported from Sheffield, England. But some truly monstrous knives were made in the early Confederacy, the reason for which is still debated among collectors. Perhaps knowing full-well that their government could not provide enough firearms, many CS soldiers went to war with these menacing side-knives. Besides being no match against a regiment in blue armed with rifled-muskets, the 23 inch, two pound weights banging against their thighs for the last twelve hours march were not a good idea. After a year of war (or sooner), many soldiers discarded the huge knives along the fields or sent them back home as impractical souvenirs. Nevertheless, the indefatigable governor of Georgia, Joe Brown, decided that more knives were needed, and his quest to that end is the subject of this book. The mammoth Bowies of excellent quality turned in to the Georgia State Arsenal in 1862 are the closest the Confederacy ever came to a regulation-issue side-knife. The knives served their state and the Confederacy in the field, if not to the fullest aspirations of the hopeful, to the most reasonable needs of the practical soldier. In this comprehensive study of these Southern Bowie knives, author/collector Josh Phillips identifies the craftsmen that answered the governor's call and the many types of huge Bowie knives that they turned in to the state arsenal at Milledgeville</p>

Confederate Bowie Knives of the Georgia State Arsenal

Josh Phillips

Reference

Author]

<p>Features include: ~ 856 full-color photos illustrating more than 350 of the finest Southern Bowies in existence. ~ Full historical and collector details on all known types of knives made in Confederate factories...including unidentified types and the Georgia and Alabama Contracts. ~ All your favorite makers, from Boyle &amp; Gamble and Louis Froelich to Nashville Plow Works and Thomas Leech &amp; Co. ~ Extensive, valuable coverage of locally made Southern knives, including the many identified makers as well as those whose origins are still unclear. ~ New research and freshly discovered makers...previously unpublished info. available nowhere else but here! ~ A full discussion of dug relic knives, with a large selection of intriguing examples shown and explained. ~ Perhaps the largest album of historical Confederate soldiers holding Bowie knives ever assembled. A truly amazing and beautiful resource.</p>

Confederate Bowie Knives

Jack Melton

John Sexton

Andrew Mowbray Publishers, Inc.

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Books by Josh Phillips