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Gentlemen,
I'd like to start a topic on Confederate bayonet usage during the war. Over the course of my studies of Confederate ordnance records I have come across many instances where C.S. units had less than 50% of their arms equipped with bayonets, yet I can't seem to recall very many C.S. reenactors, who were bayonet less in their impression. For example, during an inspection of the Army of the West at Grenada MS in December 1862, there were 11,438 small arms in the hands of the infantry, compared with only 5,854 bayonets, which means only 51% of the whole army had bayonets. (Here is the link to the OR report: http://ebooks.library.cornell.edu/cg...image;seq=0847 )
Looking at Hebert's Brigade on Jan. 24th 1863 while at Vicksburg:
3rd LA: 250 arms, 102 Bayonets: 40.8% bayonet usage
36th MS: 337 arms, 128 Bayonet: 38%
37th MS: 443 arms, 421 Bayonets: 95%
38th MS: 259 arms, 180 Bayonets: 69%
46th MS: 436 arms, 189 Bayonets: 43%
7th MS Batt: 158 arms, 83 Bayonets: 52%
Total: 1883 arms, 1103 bayonets: 58% of armed men in the brigade had bayonets.
While the standard answer of "Rebels threw away everything that was useless" is undoubtedly true in some of these cases, I have come across references to problems with ill fitting bayonets and scabbards that were far too small to hold any bayonet or that were too poorly made to be of use. For whatever reason this lack of bayonets should change how we look at our Confederate impressions. And it brings up other questions, like how and if a unit which was lacking bayonets would stack muskets.
I'll keep posting numbers of different units as time permits, but I wanted to get the ball rolling, as it were...
Will MacDonald
I'd like to start a topic on Confederate bayonet usage during the war. Over the course of my studies of Confederate ordnance records I have come across many instances where C.S. units had less than 50% of their arms equipped with bayonets, yet I can't seem to recall very many C.S. reenactors, who were bayonet less in their impression. For example, during an inspection of the Army of the West at Grenada MS in December 1862, there were 11,438 small arms in the hands of the infantry, compared with only 5,854 bayonets, which means only 51% of the whole army had bayonets. (Here is the link to the OR report: http://ebooks.library.cornell.edu/cg...image;seq=0847 )
Looking at Hebert's Brigade on Jan. 24th 1863 while at Vicksburg:
3rd LA: 250 arms, 102 Bayonets: 40.8% bayonet usage
36th MS: 337 arms, 128 Bayonet: 38%
37th MS: 443 arms, 421 Bayonets: 95%
38th MS: 259 arms, 180 Bayonets: 69%
46th MS: 436 arms, 189 Bayonets: 43%
7th MS Batt: 158 arms, 83 Bayonets: 52%
Total: 1883 arms, 1103 bayonets: 58% of armed men in the brigade had bayonets.
While the standard answer of "Rebels threw away everything that was useless" is undoubtedly true in some of these cases, I have come across references to problems with ill fitting bayonets and scabbards that were far too small to hold any bayonet or that were too poorly made to be of use. For whatever reason this lack of bayonets should change how we look at our Confederate impressions. And it brings up other questions, like how and if a unit which was lacking bayonets would stack muskets.
I'll keep posting numbers of different units as time permits, but I wanted to get the ball rolling, as it were...
Will MacDonald
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