Spring 2026 Premier Firearms & Militaria Auction
February 26th, February 27th, February 28th, and March 1st, 2026
This auction will feature an outstanding collection of items spanning multiple categories including Modern, Military, Sporting, & Antique firearms & militaria! Below is just a small grouping of select highlights from the massive offering to be featured in this upcoming sale!
HISTORIC UNION COLONEL & ACTING BRIGADE COMMANDER G. W. ROBERTS FROCK COAT, KIA MURFREESBORO, DEC. 31, 1862
02-24203
George Washington Roberts (October 2, 1833 – December 31, 1862) from a prominent Pennsylvania family, was Yale graduate, and prominent Chicago attorney who helped raise the 42nd Illinois Infantry where he served as Lt. Col till December 1861, when he became colonel. His regulation double-breasted frock coat has his name nicely inked under collar and dated Feb. 11, 1862.
On the night of April 1, 1862, Roberts fought in the Battle of Island Number Ten, in which he distinguished himself by leading fifty troops under cover of darkness to raid a Confederate shore battery and spike its guns. Roberts fought in Mississippi and Tennessee till autumn when General Rosecrans put him in command of Philip Sheridan’s 3rd Brigade, 3rd Division, 20th Army Corps commanding the 22nd Illinois, 27th Illinois, 42nd Illinois, and 51st Illinois Regiments.
At the Battle of Stones River, Sheridan’s division caught the brunt of the Confederate army’s opening assault on the morning of December 31, 1862 in area named “hell’s half-acre”. As the Confederates pushed back the Union army, Roberts, on horseback, personally led a bayonet charge that stabilized the line, giving Sheridan time to regroup. As Roberts’ brigade conducted a fighting retreat, repulsing charge after charge from the rebels, the colonel was shot three times. Roberts died moments after ordering that he be tied onto his horse to lead yet another counterattack. He was the last of Sheridan’s three brigade commanders to die at Stones River—Colonel Frederick Schaefer and Brigadier General Joshua W. Sill had been killed earlier that day. Roberts’ brigade suffered 566 casualties, but the Army of the Cumberland held the field.
The Confederate Army of Tennessee interred Roberts’ body with military honors on the field where he fell. A large stone with a rough-hewn inscription was placed atop his hastily dug grave. Roberts’ remains were later disinterred and returned home for burial.
General Sheridan wrote in his memoirs that Roberts “was an ideal soldier both in mind and body. He was young, tall, handsome, brave, and dashing and possessed a balanced wheel of such good judgment that, in his sphere of action, no occasion could arise, from which he would not reap the best results.”
His regulation double-breasted general’s frock coat retains all but one of its original buttons and original tie-down colonel straps are excellent. This well-tailored frock made in Nashville has fine velvet lined collar, fully padded interior lining, heavy gilded eagle “I” buttons. UNATTACHED ACCESSORIES: vintage engraving of Col. Roberts. STATUS: NON-GUN.
