This decorated dress sword and scabbard belonged to Rear Admiral Francis J. Higginson (1843-1931) of Deerfield, Massachusetts, at the turn of the 20th century. Higginson was in the Navy for both the Civil War(1861-1865) and the Spanish-American War (1898). In the 1880's the navy was modernized and this included building new steam driven ships. Higginson was the first captain of the Massachusetts, one of America's first battleships. He commanded the Massachusetts during the Spanish-American War in 1898.