VERY OLD BRONZE HISTORICAL MARKER FOR "THE GREAT CHAIN

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VERY OLD BRONZE HISTORICAL MARKER FOR "THE GREAT CHAIN

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Sold Date: 05/17/2007
Channel: Online Auction
Source: eBay
Category: Militaria & Weapons

BRONZE MARKER FOR THE INFAMOUS " GREAT CHAIN" REVOLUTIONARY WAR HISTORY
Up for auction is this great piece of AMERICAN HISTORY. I got this over a couple of months ago and have been continually researching to find out its history and origin. The bronze marker or plackard weighs 3 or 4 pounds and is 4 1/2" tall by about 15" long. Petina on the item is wonderful. It reads: LINKS OF THE GREAT CHAIN WHICH DURING THE THE WAR OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION WAS STRETCHED ACROSS THE HUDSON RIVER AT WEST POINT TO PREVENT THE PASSAGE OF BRITISH WAR SHIPS.
'S THE STORY: During the revolutionary war the American Revolutionaries stretched a floating chain across the Hudson River at West Point, N.Y., preventing the British from moving up river. The chain was made of 800 wrought iron links weighing about 125lbs each. The chain survived a sabotage attempt by Benedict Arnold. It became known as "the great chain" and was instrumental in our efforts to win the war against the British. At the end of the war the chain was melted down for scrap except 13 links which are on display to this day at the museum at West Point.
THE STORY GETS INTERESTING SEVERAL YEARS LATER: A New York junk dealer by the name of John C. Abbey who went under the name of WESTMINSTER ABBEY, came up with a scam in the 1880's. It was said you could get anything from Westminster Abbey's place including authentic links of the great chain. Thus began a huge con game. Abbey told everyone that the chain had surfaced from a 300 acre Brooklyn Navy Yard. Abbey's chain was in fact an 86 link mooring chain manufactured exclusively in Great Britian. He began to sell the links of chain to naive buyers. When Abbey died in the early 1900's New York headlines read "WESTMINSTER ABBEY DEAD!" Abbey sold this chain up until the early 1900's, when the counterfiet chain enterprise was taken over by Francis Bannerman. Bannerman shamelessly elaborated on the yarn and continued to profit off of the historical farce. Counterfiet links were sold and made their way to the SMITHSONIAN, CHICAGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY, ERIE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, FOREST LAWN MEMORIAL PARK IN LOS ANGELES, AND SEVERAL OTHERS. It wasn't until 1980 that official tests were done on the fake links of chain to determine the truth. ONE OF THE GREATEST HISTORICAL HOAXES OF ALL TIMES. Most of the information above is documented in LINCOLN DIAMANT'S BOOK - YANKEE DOODLE DAYS.
NOW FOR THE QUESTIONS ON MY BRONZE MARKER : I picked this marker up at a local swap meet. T has been no way for me to determine exactly w it came from, but it could have, and probably did come from one of the sites mentioned above. It also could have come from WEST POINT -They renovated many of the historical sites in the early 1970's for the bicentinneal including the museum at West Point. At any rate, it is a very cool artifact with a great and storied history. I have had some people offer to buy it, but I really don't know the value of an object such as this, so I thought I would let the auction dictate the price. One thing I can say about it, is that it is more authentic than the links of chain that were sold by Abbey and Bannerman.
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