An American civil war artefact discovered during a house clearance is expected to raise up to £1,500 at auction.

Scotsman Lieutenant-Colonel William Latimer Duff fought under General Ulysses S Grant at the Battle of Lookout Mountain in Tennessee in 1863.

Gen Grant went on to be elected President in 1868, and Lt-Col Duff was made US Consul in Glasgow.

He worked as a war reporter for the New York Herald covering the Franco-Prussian war from 1870 to 1871, and died in 1894. When he returned from America he brought back a stick he had used in battle to indicate when his men should fire their cannons.

The stick is fitted with a gold cap, engraved with details of the battle, in which Lt-Col Duff was Chief of Artillery. It was discovered when a worker from the Eastbourne Auction Rooms was clearing out a house after the owner had died.

Valuer Jeannette May, said: "It is very unusual for anything from the American civil war to be found in England. The war means a lot to Americans because they have so little history of their own."

American bidders have already expressed an interest in the stick, although some experts say the artefact could be a commemorative walking stick and not a battlefield pointing stick.

The stick goes under the hammer at Eastbourne Auction Rooms on Friday. For more information, visit www.eastbourneauction.com