This is a great piece of Confederate naval history! This is the cutlass that was carried and used on board ship by sailors in the Confederate navy. This is the pattern that is mentioned and a similar one is illustrated on pages 202 and 203 of Pritchard's book, Collecting the Confederacy. What is great about this cutlass is that it is "CSN" marked. The blade is full length at 20-1/2 inches and it is 1-3/4ths inches at the widest point. The blade is completely unmarked as it should be. It has a nice gray color tone all over. The hand guard of the sword is made of the thick cast brass and as you can see it would've been a very formidable weapon for up close combat. The handle of the sword is made of cast brass and has the fish scale style design like that of the union counterparts. It also has the anchor and rope on one side of the top of the grip as well. The other side has the letters "CSN" cast into the brass. It's these letters which display so well and make this pattern of sword coveted by collectors. The scabbard is missing as they usually are. These scabbard are very fragile which is why there are so few of them surviving. This is a beautiful 100% original Confederate naval cutlass.