This broadside, from the collections of the Pennsylvania State Archives, advertises a sword presentation to Colonel George C. Wynkoop of the 7th Pennsylvania Cavalry at Pottsville’s Town Hall on May 7, 1863 at 7pm.

The giving of honorary swords was common in the Civil War-era, giving opportunities for communities to recognize the services and bravery of their hometown officers during the Civil War.

George C. Wynkoop grew up in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania and came to Schuylkill County as a young man. He served in an officer’s role in the pre-Civil War militia in his adopted hometown of Pottsville.

When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Governor Andrew Curtin appointed him as a brigadier general of Pennsylvania volunteer forces, a position he held for three months in the first summer of the war.

In the fall of 1861, Wynkoop gathered soldiers for what became the 7th Pennsylvania Cavalry regiment at Pottsville. He was appointed as colonel of the regiment, a position he held as the unit participated in combat operations in the Civil War’s Western Theater until he was discharged in June 1863 due to disability.

Wynkoop died in 1882 at the age of 76 and is buried in Pottsville’s Presbyterian Cemetery.

The Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College has a collection of Wynkoop’s 1861 correspondence and documentation, as well as a brief history about Wynkoop written by historian Chris Gwinn.

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