Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 March 1894 — Sword and Bayonet Forma. [ARTICLE]

Sword and Bayonet Forma.

The sabre used by the United States cavalry is copied from the cimeter of the Saracens, which was the most effective sword for cutting purposes ever devised. It will be remembered how, according to the story told in Sir Walter Scott’s “Talisman,” with such a weapon the pagan Saladin chopped a soft cushion in two at one blow, to the amazement of Richard Coeur de Leon. With a straight sword one can make a hack or a thrust, but to slice an adversary one must saw with it. The cimeter, being curved and wide and heavy toward the end, slices by the mere fact of striking. The kind of bayonets chiefly used by the Federal troops during the War of the Rebellion, was the old triangular pattern. Sword bayonets were also employed on guns imported from Europe. During the last ten years the regulation bayonet has been of the “ramrod” type—a hideous instrument, cylindrical and of the thickness of a ramrod, with a sharp screw point, like that of a carpenter’s bit. It is now to be replaced with the knife bayonet, which somewhat resembles a butcher’s knife—is tw’elve inches long with one edge. It is quite as effective and much lighter than the sword bayonet. The latter is being dispensed with by most of the European nations in favor of the knife bayonet. The bayonet was a French invention. In the early days of firearms soldiers used to carry both guns and pikes, but the notion of attaching the pike to the gun in such a manner that both could be used at the same time, was the beginning of the idea of the bayonet —[Troy Times. ' . .