Pen is mightier than the sword

[katana]

The gladius was the main weapon of one of the greatest military machines of history....the Roman empire. Incidentally, 'gladius' was also Roman slang for the 'male appendage' (hence the title). The effective technique of lines of Roman Centurions advancing with a 'shield wall' and slashing oncoming opponents with their short swords was effectively a giant killing lawn mower....with the enemy playing the part of the grass

This sword was re-introduced as a side arm as the French foot artillery short sword of 1816 and the later variants including the US 1832 model. Now, this 'later' sword type was not well liked or was extremely effective in combat and was known by the French as the coupe choux (cabbage cutter). It ended up being used mainly as a machete for cutting wood, cutting brush and creating trails.

It seems that the 'pen pushers' dictated the decision to issue the sword to the troops on a misguided belief that 'if it worked so well for the Romans ....' but failed to understand that the weapon 'matched' the tactics.
To me, it seems that the design changes to regulation swords were influenced more by government 'officials' than by military considerations. In an ethnographic environment the evolution of weapons tends to be driven by 'what's better', adopting improvements from enemy weapons and better technology.
So was this case.......what other swords were supposedly replaced by improved patterns...that on the battle field were in fact worse.

All comments gratefully received

Kind Regards David