The walking stick became a requisite of fashion during the seventeenth century.  When crafted from exotic woods and capped with a gold head, it was suddenly elevated to an object of status.  The Bayou Bend example carries an enigmatic inscription. Captain Thomas Forbes, its recipient, was a blockade runner during the Civil War and is believed to have received the walking stick, with a compass mounted in the head, in recognition for having outrun an enemy steamer and safely returned to New Orleans from Havana with desperately needed arms, powder, and coffee.

Book excerpt: David B. Warren, Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff.  American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998.