The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1892-04-20
Soldiers 8moqet.
Struck with the Saber.

Struck with the Saber.
From the time we reached the state
rendezvous until we went into camp on
the peninsula it was drill drill drill
with the saber. A corporal would take
half a dozen, the captain the whole
company, and for an hour and half
we would 90 through the cuts and
thrusts and parties. There was the
front cut, the down cut, the savage
thrust, the back-hand cut and dozen
others, and we were told that our lives
depended on knowing how 10 give and
receive each particular one. 1t was
good exercise, perhaps, but on the very
first day we went into fight as cavalry
all of us came to see the aosurdity of il,
says writer in the Detroit Free Press.
| was in thirty cavalry fights during the
war, and in none of them did witness
or have use for anything like the saber
exercise. Not that | did not see men
struck with the saber, but they were
struck during the confusion and melee
when the other party could claim no
credit. For instance, our cavalry drove
full tilt into about six hundred confed-
crate cavalry at Brandy Station. ! used
then grasped my saber. The smoke
was very thick, and men and horses
were greatly excited. In the mad whirl
confederate rode upon me and made
savage slash with his saber. 1t missed
my head and cut the pommel of my
saddle. Before he could get away, 1
"swiped at him, and l know the edge
of the saber struck his face. / may
have knocked out some of his teeth, but
the edge was as blunt as hoe, and
could not have cut the skin.
AT Shepardstown we were charged in
about the same way. There were a
great many sabers flashing as they came
on, but by the time the shock came the
revolvers and carbines were doing the
heft of the work. | had fair show in
that fight to give thrust, and it was a
lamentable failure. l got the point of
the saber in under the enemy's appraised
right arm, but doubt if l drew blood.
| simply pushed him half out of his
saddle, and he retaliated with side cut
which uncovered my head and did no
further damage.
There were probably more men hit
with the saber at Gettysburgh than
anywhere else during the war. The
main reason for this was the equality
of numbers, together with the fact that
very few of the Union cavalry had re-
vOlvers. We charged with our car
bnes slung to our backs and il was
saber or nothing. l had heavy silk
handkerchief inside my new hat that
day as preventive of sunstroke. 1t
prevented confederate cavaryman
from splitting my head open. | had
young, green horse, and he gave me no
end of trouble. While | was trying to
prevent him from going to the fight
backward confederate approached me
from the rear and administered the
down cut. 1t dazed me for moment,
but the heavy hat and handkerchief,
backed up by thick growth of hair,
saved my head He drew blood and
had a sore head for week afterward,
but he had wasted his blow. After the
first ten minutes of that cavalry en-
counter nothing but sabers were used.
We thrust, hacked and cut, hitting both
horses and men, but doubt if anyone
was killed outright on either side with
the steel. TO make saber effective it
must carry keen edge. During my
three years in the army did not see
above dozen sharpened sabers We
had no orders to grind them, and so we
carried them with hoe-edge.
Then, it takes a strong armed man to
WELD a common cavalry saber so as to
strike an effective blow. His horse
must be reasonably steady so he can
control him with the bride arm, and
there must be plenty of muscle in the
arm to give weight to the blow. With
sharp saber, a man weighing 100
pounds might split mans skull, but
a man weighing thirty pounds less,
with full weapon, would only make
play toward it. In fact, realizing his
incapacity in that direction, he would
not try it.
La cavalry encounter at Kellev's
Ford / struck confederate fair in the
neck with my saber and struck as hard
as | could. He tumbled from his sad
die and was captured. l did not even
draw blood. l gave him such blow as
to stun him for a few minutes, the
same as ii l had struck him with a
club, but aside from stiff neck he was
all right. Big, strong men with keen
edged sabers would do some awful cut
ting, and they would inspire fear wher-
ever they charged, DuC average men
with average weapons accomplish very
little outside of the moral effect.
Quantrell proved that there was some
thing more effective than the saber.
Each of his men was armed with at
least two revolvers. Each one could
shoot right and left-handed. A squad
of thirty of them thus armed never
hesitated to charge 100 regular cavalry
and they never charged without infct.
lug terrible destruction.