Military artifacts go up for auction today in N.H.

HAMPTON FALLS, N.H. – When Civil War Adm. David Farragut said, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead,” he was talking about a contraption up for auction today in New Hampshire.

When Gen. George Custer’s scouts warned him he was headed for more than he could handle at the Little Big Horn, he is said to have looked through a pair of binoculars also on the auction block, and – so the story goes – not recognized the danger.

The two pieces of American history are among millions of dollars’ worth of military artifacts drawing collectors from around the country to the four-day auction that begins today at the Faro Gardens banquet hall.

The centerpiece is an extensive collection being sold by Atlanta businessman Michael Adamson. It includes rare Confederate cannon, a vast array of artillery ammunition, enough uniforms and weapons to outfit a small army, artifacts from Adamson’s ancestors who fought for the South, and a torpedo like the ones in Farragut’s path during the battle of Mobile Bay in 1864.

“This is one of only two that exist,” auction official James Julia said of the torpedo. Julia’s Fairfield, Maine, company is handling the auction.

The torpedo, a predecessor to current underwater mines, is a keg dipped in tar to make it watertight, then filled with powder, armed with a detonator and anchored just below the surface where a ship would run into it. It’s the size of a small duffel bag.

Adamson’s collection includes a sword that belonged to Confederate Gen. Leonidas Polk, a distant relative. Julia called it “the finest known Confederate general’s sword that’s ever come to auction.”

Potential bidders got a chance to look over the goods Monday.

Bob Carlson, who studies and collects Civil War items, was examining a corroded, foot-long cylinder that was filled with canister shot, iron balls or other small projectiles. Fired at close range, it would cut a 15- to 20-foot swath through advancing troops.

“It’s rusted out, but it’s the real McCoy,” said Carlson, who said he lives in northeastern Connecticut.

Custer’s field glasses come with a story.

The accompanying documentation, or provenance, says a cavalry trooper found them on the body of an Indian killed in the Wounded Knee massacre in South Dakota 1890. Later, Indians at the Pine Ridge Reservation told soldiers the dead man had picked them up on the Little Big Horn battlefield after Custer’s defeat 14 years earlier.

“Nearly all of the officers of the 7th U.S. Cavalry have inspected these glasses and expressed themselves as being convinced that they were the actual glasses used by General Custer in the campaign in which he and his gallant troopers were massacred,” said a bill of sale from a cavalry trooper to his brother in 1897.

Julia said items such as the Polk saber or Confederate cannon could sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Overall, he expects the auction to bring in $9 million or more.

On the Net: www.juliaauctions.com