British 1796 HCS pattern blade shape

[Triarii]

Random question, as I've lost my notes; about the modified point on the British 1796 HCS.

I read two examples which indicate that the changes from hatchet to spear point potentially happened some time before the 1815 campaign, which is when it is commonly assumed to have been implemented.

One was about a duel where an HC officer accidentally kills his opponent and a witness says it was on account of the sword point; EDIT: Actually a dispute at a barracks amongst an officer and trooper of the 2nd DG April 15, 1814 - details later.

And another incident where a trooper falls off of his horse (my memory says this was 1812 and in the UK) and is presumed to be mortally wounded by his sword landing hilt down on the road and he lands head first on it.
EDIT: My faulty memory, this was an 18 LD in 1814, so using an LCS. See later post.

I'm sure one of these events was recounted here. Can anyone help?

[Jim McDougall]

The first account I recall of this (and by memory only, I dont have the exact notes) was when the Royal Scots Greys were departing for Belgium in 1815, prior to their immortal action at Waterloo. They were ordered to grind the backs of the blades on their 1796 heavy cavalry swords to a 'spear point'.

I am not sure how widely this modification was taken with other units of heavy cavalry, but it seems that the objective to to move toward the thrust, which was most effectively used by the French. After the end of the Napoleonic campaigns it seems that the 1796 swords were collectively modified by removing the inner section of the disc, as well as the langets (I believe) in addition to going to a spear point.

After the end of the war, there was little if any production of swords for other ranks with those in service remaining in use until the advent of the M1821/1829 bowl guard pattern.

These anecdotes sound rather apocryphal, as I cannot imagine a 'duel' with these heavy awkward chopping swords, and how is one 'accidentally' killed by a sword point? and the chances of a sword falling to the ground and somehow secured in position for someone to fall on it, presumably in the same moments.

John Morgan, years ago, wrote a brilliant article on the M1796 Heavy Cavalry sword in "Classic Arms and Militaria"(I'll see if I can find it).

I'd love to see these bizarre sounding tales and know more on their source.

[Triarii]

Hi Jim,

Both incidents were in contemporary broadsheet articles, pictures of which were included in the posts. I'm now more minded towards it being on Facebook in maybe the IASC forum or similar. In fact I think I recall who posted at least one of them, possibly in my HEMA club forum.

On the duel article, I'm only going by what the witness (defending the guy who mortally wounded the other) stated in the article, which implied that he didn't mean to stab him - quite possible given that killing someone would get you into a lot of trouble.

Cuts were much less lethal than thrusts, one reason which led George Silver to complain about the use of rapiers vice broad and backswords when having a good honest street fight.

As an example Donald McBane - who is in quite a few fights where people give up after receiving, or are incapacitated by, cuts that aren't fatal - stated that when fighting a broadsword user then a wet napkin folded under your hat and/or about your left arm would be enough take a lot of the blow.

I used to have an HCS with the spear point modification but had its langets and modified inner guard, which based on the folding guards of the 1796 IOS and early 1822s, was about comfort and not ragging your clothes.

[toaster5sqn]

I've heard it said (hopefully someone can actually give a source) that the practice of grinding the tips was developed during the peninsular campaign. Because none of the household cavalry was deployed to the peninsular they were unaware of this field modification and someone with experience with it choose to inform them via the order prior to Waterloo.

Robert

[Radboud]

My two pennies on this topic.

1. Accidents happen and people die in the most random of events. This is just one of Murphy's laws. It's not inconceivable that a trooper practicing drills with sword drawn, falls from his horse and hits his head against his sword hilt. With the flat disk guard of the 1796 HC, a blow from the edge would have been nasty!

2. Officer swords at the time were private purchase and it would have been a personal choice to modify the blade (or order one with a spear point).

3. Officers had multiple uniforms at the time; undress for military exercises and battle, dress for parade and functions and full dress for when on formal functions. Often this ment a different sword for each uniform. While the evidence is thin, it is broadly accepted that the dress sword for officers of the heavy cavalry was a double edged spadroon with a boatshell guard. with some cutting capacity, this sword was best suited to thrust based attacks.

4. The removal of the langets; my understanding was that were rather fragile and had a habbit of breaking off, so it is possible the other was removed to balance it out. I have seen examples of swords with a single langet remaining.

On a side note, the 1821 regulations for the British lancers specifically mention three different swords for undress, dress and full dress. The last two being mameluke sabres with a steel scabbard and a valvet covered scabbard respectively.

Because posts are best with pictures:

1796 Pattern HC troopers sword:


1796 Pattern HC officers undress:


1796 Pattern HC Officers dress:

The leather scabbard could mean that this was for full dress, or that it was worn by a general officer who were also known to use this hilt.

And to show that Georgians liked to be difficult and throw the odd spanner into our nice modern categories:
1796 Pattern HC Officers dress with family broadsword blade:

[Triarii]

The man falling from his horse, actually an 18th LD, using an LCS: