Silver-Hilted Officer’s Rapier, 1776 The silver hilt is signed “Hamilton Ballentine, Esq.,Jamaica, 1776.” Ballentine was charged with “making a drawing of [Charleston] and its fortifications” for use by the British. He was hanged March 5, 1780, by order of General Benjamin Lincoln, commander of American forces in Charleston. His execution was carried out on the west side of the peninsula deliberately within sight of British forces across the Ashley River on James Island. One contemporary source noted Ballentine “…suffered the unpitied death of a traitor.”
Courtesy of The Charleston Museum, Charleston, South Carolina
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