Civil War Edged Weapons

Civil War stories and movies are often filled with romantic visions of charging men coming into close combat, complete with slashing swords and stabbing bayonets. The truth is somewhat different, as revealed by both statistics and many of the memoirs and letters written by the men who were there. While edged weapons were widely issued, and therefore were thoroughly characteristic of the war, the were in truth not widely used in combat.

Bayonet

The vast bulk of the manpower of both the Federal and Confederate armies in the Civil War were employed as infantry, and every common infantryman was issued with a bayonet. This took the form of either a blade or triangular spike that was attached to a metal ring, which would be fitted to the barrel of the musket for combat use. The result transformed the musket into a short spear. In combat, the bayonet's value was more psychological than physical. Often quoted statistics show that only a tiny fraction of the wounds treated in military hospitals during the war were caused by edged weapons, but having a mass of charging men armed with bayonets surging forward at a dead run was usually enough to break the will of all but the steadiest troops.

Cavalry Saber

One of the standard weapons of the cavalry trooper was the saber. This was a slightly curved, one-handed sword with a blade that typically measured about three feet in length. They were slashing weapons meant to be used from horseback. By the middle of the war, the saber was falling out of use. Famed Confederate cavalry general Nathan Bedford Forrest always treated his men as mounted infantry, and the more successful Federal cavalrymen like Generals Buford, Minty and Wilder based their cavalry tactics around repeating carbines rather than the saber.

Officer's Sword

Another commonly issued edged weapon was the short sword or hanger-type sword issued to officers. Reaching back to medieval times and arguably even further, possession of a sword was a symbol of high status and authority. In the Civil War, this was manifested by issuing one to every officer, as well as to most senior non-commissioned officers (such as regimental sergeant majors). However, more than any other type of Civil War edged weapon, these were more or less ornamental and rarely used in combat.

Bowie Knife

The Bowie knife, with its thick, foot-long (or longer) blade was a popular side arm among many private soldiers in the early stages of the war, especially in the Confederate Army. Indeed, there was a special kind of particularly enormous Bowie knife that came to be identified with the Confederates, and was later called the D-Guard Bowie knife. However, most troopers quietly discarded their Bowie knives as the war wore on, mostly because they were so heavy to carry on the march and of little practical value.

Pikes

An interesting anachronism of the Civil War was the manufacture of pikes. These weapons are essentially 16 to 20-foot-long spears, tipped by blades between 1 and 3 feet in length. Prior to the Civil War, the last time the pike was an effective weapon on the battlefield was in the 17th century, but the Confederates ordered it into production due to a shortage of guns. Stonewall Jackson ordered up a consignment of pikes, which has often been read as a symbol of his determination to press home shock attacks, but more likely had to do with the fact that many of the men in his Valley Army were without guns at the time. However, Georgia Governor Joe Brown persisted with having pikes made long after the shortage in firearms was resolved.

References

• Soldiering in the Army of Tennessee. Larry Daniel (1991)
• Weapons of the American Civil War
• Battle Tactics of the Civil War. Paddy Griffith (1989).