President William Henry Harrison died in 1841 after just 31 days in the White House. But the sword he carried at the Battle of Tippecanoe is caught up in one last war.

The sword and its scabbard were seized by the police in Connecticut last month just minutes before they were to go up for auction, where organizers said they were expected to fetch at least $50,000.

A sword said to have belonged to the president was stolen from the Cincinnati Historical Society in 1979, officials said. There was no sign of it for 40 years until an eagle-eyed Harrison fan in Ohio last month stumbled upon an auction website advertising the sale — the next day — of a “silver-hilt smallsword” once wielded by the president.

He alerted other amateur historians, and together they got law enforcement officials in two states to swiftly intervene, seizing the sword on Oct. 19, the day it was to have been sold.