Civil War Saber Combat: Part 1-The disappointment

What was saber combat like during the American Civil War? How were the troopers trained and what did the officers prefer to the saber in a charge? Join us this week for Part 1 of the saber!

For more information on saber techniques used by Federal forces during the war, visit our library to look at the manuals the soldiers learned from!

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[alexandersmall]

While the training of the saber is difficult, and sharpening is a pain, there is nothing as terrifying as being charged down by a man on horse with a saber!

[mrspeigle]

As a Firearms guy I will tell you that the officers argument for Sabres vs pistols is probably correct. Trying to hit a moving man-sized Target with a 1 handed pistol from the back of a galloping horse would be dicy at best. Landing a hit in a vital enough area to put the man out of action before he's cut you even morso.

[jeffreywall]

The efficacy of the sword was irrefutably demonstrted - believe it or not - in WWI in Palestine. The Desert Mounted Corps [the DMC] of the British Egyptian Expeditionary Force grew to be one of the largest mounted forces ever assembled by the western powers. Depending on your source and during which part of the war, the numbers could be 12, 000, 40, 000 or 60, 000. The important part however is that the Australian Lighthorse made up some 7/16th of the DMC. By the spring of 1918, 13 of the 14 ALH regiments had requested to be armed with, had been so armed and trained in the use of the British M1908 straight thrusting saber - a weapon they put to good use over the following 6 months. They conducted by my count a dozen mounted charges with it - all successful.

At one point an ALH Brigade of 3 regiments attacked some 4, 000 Turks and Germans with at least a dozen machineguns defending a rocky ridge. Charging over open ground nearly 3 miles, 2 of the regiments swept in with the sword while the center regiment dismounted about 100 yards out and went in with the rifle and bayonet. That regiment took more casualties than the 2 that went in mounted with the sword. Overall the attack was entirely successul. Indeed, British AARs noted that “machineguns alone are insufficient to stop a mounted charge.” [page 113 Australia's Palestine Campaign by Jean Bou - #7 in the Australian Army Series published by the Australian Army Historical Division. I note that this was a combined arms attack with the Royal Horse Artillery and a Machingun Battalion firing in direct support to suppress the Turks and Germans.

Indeed, America’s greatest horseman, Harry D. Chamberlin - an officer highly respected by George Catlett Marshall and a personal friend of George S. Patton and Lucian Truscott - along with Patton and Truscott argued for maintaining a mounted force in the Army because of its speed over ground not trafficable by wheeled or tracked vehicles. [The 1941 Louisianna War Games were designed to prove horse mounted cavalry was obsolete. It rather proved the opposite]. General Chamberlin died of cancer on 29 Sept 1944. 57 years and 24 days after Chamberlin passed from this veil of tears, on 23 October 2001, American Special Forces Soldiers entered combat in Afghanistan mounted on horses alongside the cavalrymen of General Abdul Rashid Dostum of the Northern Alliance who conducted mounted charge after mounted charge to take first Mazar-e-Sherif and then Kabul. They moved faster than infantry could move across terrain impassable to armor and where other motorized transport could not go – exactly as Chamberlin and his friends Patton and Truscott argued for more than half a century earlier.

I am aware I drifted off sabers so I conclude with the truism that sharp cold steel scares people.

[mdbizzarri]

What is interesting I found out recently, is the US Navy taught saber use until the early 20th century, which you can see in the original Blue Jackets Manual.

[ryanhampson]

I have a Reproduction 1st century Roman Gladius. While it is primarily a show piece and sits in its scabbard on display, I have it sharpened to a razors edge. One time one of my friends grabbed it and playfully started swinging it around, to which I quickly grabbed it from her and then showed her it was a real sword with a live blade. People ask me why have it sharpened and my mindset is, it’s a sword. If it was blunt then that’s just a sword “shaped” piece of metal

[JonDesautels]

The 1st Vermont Cavalry made quite a number of saber charges and there's actually record of them grinding sabers--page 569 Vermont in the Civil War "On the 13th, the regiment went into camp at "Camp Hatch, " two miles from Winchester, where it remained for ten days, and the men ground sabres."

There's even an account of a supporting charge by Colonel Preston on foot with sabers and, I'm assuming, pistols (?) at Gettysburg. This would in support of Farnsworth's doomed charge--page 599 Vermont in the Civil War "Preston accordingly followed Farnsworth and Wells over the stone fence, and into the open field, where he encountered an infantry regiment which had moved in to intercept the retreat of the second battalion, and a sharp contest followed. Checked by the fire in his front, Preston obliqued to the right and charged the flank of the opposing line. "The Contest, " he says in his report, "became a hand to hand one, in which our sabres were effectually used. The enemy being completely cut up, surrendered in squads and were sent to the rear. Had I had two companies of carbineers at my command, I think I could have held the position and removed my wounded; but being exposed to the fire of the enemy's batteries and sharpshooters I was obliged to fall back."

Here's another account at Hagerstown--page 607, Vermont in the Civil War "The latter part of the afternoon Major Wells's battalion, now reduced to less than 60 men, was ordered to charge down the Hagerstown road. The charge was made with spirit, and sabre cuts were freely given and taken, but the force was not large enough to hold the ground gained, and Wells retired, having inflicted serious injury on the enemy. In this melee Major Wells crossed sabres with a Confederate officer and received a glancing thrust in the side which passed through his clothes and scratched his skin. While so engaged in front he was attacked from behind by a trooper, received a blow across the back, and was in serious danger, when Sergeant Jerome B. Hatch, who was lying pinned to the ground by his horse which had fallen on him, disabled one of Wells's assailants by a shot from his revolver, and Wells beat off the other."

And here is another charge of the 1st Vermont at Tom's Brook while under Custer's command--page 662 VCW "It is related that before he ordered the grand charge of his division, Custer rode out alone, in advance of his staff, and taking off his broad sombrero hat swept it to his knee in a knightly salute to his foe; and that Rosser from the crest beyond pointed him out to his staff, saying: "That's Custer; and I am going to give him the best whipping to-day that he ever got." Instead Rosser got the worst whipping he ever had. As soon as his brigades were fairly in position Custer attacked in one sweeping charge. It was first a walk to the skirmish line, then a trot, then a gallop, then a wild rush of shouting troopers with waving sabres and frantic horses. The charge was so sudden and rapid that the enemy's fire of artillery and small arms took little effect, and before Rosser knew what had happened, his position was carried."

[maibemiles]

That explains why my gr. gr. great uncles sword was never even sharpened!!! He never fought in the war as he died of camp fever literally just weeks before their first battle in the fall on ‘62. (if memory serves me correctly) I always wondered if the sword was used, or how it was used (since it’s duller than a butter knife) and watching your very informative video, it sounds like it was basically tossed aside from the moment he received it… probably why it survived and made it into my hands! Who knows!

[Valduria]

It may have been the last sword ever used significantly in war but it certainly wasn't a new one.

Horse the entire time: "OK so what're we doing?" \ __~__ /

[WMDTVIDS]

Outstanding video.
Just goes to show that well developed basics often carry the day: sharpen your sword and know how to use it

[theamericancristero]

Great to have someone knowledgeable cite sources. I've often argued over the premise that the civil somehow proves that sabers were obsolete.... aside from the fact that swords were used in Europe up into (and even past) 1900. The US never really had a cavalry tradition of swordsmen, we had dragoons, and then called then cavalry, never fostering a swordsmanship culture. Men taking ineffective pot shots with each other with revolvers whether mounted or not, flies in the face of effective closing home with bayonet and blade in wars across the world in the same period. The Victorian British officer carried an Adam's AND an 1845 Wilkinson precisely bc the firearm didn't fully render anything but a knife in grappling obsolete until detachable box magazine fed repeating weapons.

[SonOfTheDawn]

9:07 Every army of 1914 and onwards "laughs in machinegun."

[MommaRed]

Nathan Bedford Forrest understood this, he kept his M1860 light sharp as he could get it the entirety of the war, he killed 31 in hand to hand combat as a General. Much respect

[robertlehnert]

The Ames saber, especially the 1861, was ground with egregiously bad primary bevels, making it impossible to sharpen it effectively wit field equipment.

[westtnskirmishlog]

Nice fellas, looks very sharp, no pun intended.

[nehcrum]

Also, to be pointed out, in the video there is references to how "US cavalry" would beat european armies and how they were most effective in a dismounted skirmish line.
To put that into context, the US Civil War was about at the same time as the Second Schleswig War and the Austro-Prussian war. So these "US cavalry" would have been up against something like prussian Jägers armed with Dreyse needle-rifles.

[gabegringo]

I do not dispute Whitaker's comment wholesale, but these are the observations of one man. I have read many other's from the Civil War who attested the opposite conclusions. In fact, all attestations of the Battle of Brandy Station in 1863 (the largest cavalry battle in the history of North America) state that the vast majority of cavalrymen fought each other with sabers and n'er heard a shot fired.

[adambowling]

Great video bro! I am really interested in saber combat especially during the American Civil and Indian Wars. There aren’t too many stories of their use in combat during those times, but the ones that exist are amazing. Hard to believe we still fought with sabers even when firearms were prevalent

[joejoelesh]

I teach historical military sabre use from around the civil war period.

I mostly use British sources, but of course when i started i tried to find some American period sources. About all they showed was how to salute and carry the sabre at parade.

[samuelstambaugh]

I am an old time fencer/ pre HEMA sword fighter ! And it had always confounded me as to why 1860s back . That there where not more sword dueling / fights . After all the blades where there . From former wars(1812- Mexican war) along with the number of hunting swords that had been carried from the pre rev war threw 1830s 🤔 !

[deadsweetheart]

Maybe also talk about choices of saber I know some men north and south privately purchased German made British style 1821 and 1845 swords mainly because of the steel guards