Auction of military artifacts draws bids totaling $9.2 million

HAMPTON FALLS, N.H. – Bidders from around the world spent $9.2 million this week for rare artifacts from the Civil War and other bits of American history, a world record for a rare-weapons auction, according to the company that conducted the sale.

The centerpiece of the four-day auction was a 2,000-item collection sold by Atlanta real estate developer Michael Adamson. It included 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 Confederate “torpedo” like the ones used to sink Union ships.

The torpedo, the predecessor to current underwater mines, went for nearly $52,000, including a 15 percent “buyer’s premium.”

James Julia, whose Fairfield, Maine, company handled the auction, said the Adamson collection went for more than $1.6 million. He said the $9.2 million produced by the auction surpassed an earlier auction conducted by his company that yielded $9 million.

Adamson was disappointed.

“The whole thing brought in less than half of what I’d expected,” Adamson told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I’m just sick. We’ve given stuff away.”

A sword that belonged to Confederate Gen. Leonidas Polk, a distant relative of Adamson’s, went for $77,000, about half of what had been expected, Adamson said.

Julia called it “the finest known Confederate general’s sword that’s ever come to auction.”

Gen. George Custer’s binoculars, said to be the ones he carried to his death at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, drew more than $54,000.