Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1892-07-28
WAR "REMINISCENCES.
"sTRuck WITH THE sAsER.
How silk Handkerchief Saved soldiers
Life.

Lie
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 who
company, and for an hour and half We
would 70 through the cuts and thrusts
and parties There. was the front cut,
the down cut, the savage thrust, the
baek-hand-cut and dozen Others and
we were told that our lives depended on
knowing how to give and receive each
particular one 1t was good exercise,
perhaps. but on the very first day we
went into a fight as cavalry all of us
came to see the absurdity of it.
was in thirty cavalry fights during
the war and in none of them did | wit
ness 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 regiment
drove full tilt into about six hundred
confederate cavalry at Brandy Station.
4 uctu lily ItROiNtl unliA ~ " 10 NhAFNg
and then gripped my saber. The smoke
was very thick and men and horses were
greatly excited. In the mad whirl a
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 |
''swipeda at him and 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
about the same way. There were
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 a
fair show in that fight to give thrust,
and it was lamentable failure. | got
the point of the saber in under the enc
'ay's appraised right arm, but | doubt i
rev blood; simply pushed him ha
cat of his saddle, and he retaliat' d
with side cut which uncovered my
head and did no further damage.
There were probably more men hit
with the saber at Gettysburg than any
where else during the war. The main
reason for this was the equality of num-
bers, together with the fact that very
few OF the union cavalry had revolvers.
We charged with our carbines slung to
our backs. and it was saber or nothing.
l had heavy silk handkerchief inside
my new hal that day as preventive
of sunstroke. II prevented confeder-
ate cavalryman from splitting my head
open. | had young, green horse, and
he gave me no end of trouble. While /
was trying to prevent him from gong
out of the fight backwards contede :
ate approached me from the rear al d
administered the down cut. II dazed
me for a moment, but the heavy hat
and handkerchief, backed up by Thick
growth of hair, saved my head. He
drew blood, and | had a sore hei d
for week after, but he had wasted ;
blow.
After the first ten minutes OF that
cavalry encounter nothing but sabers
were used. We thrust, hacked and cut,
hitting both horse and man, but Idoubt
il any one 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 a dozen sharpened
sabers We had no orders to grind
them. and so we carried them with a
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 man weighing one
hundred and sixty pounds might split
a mans skull, but a man weighing
thirty pounds less, with dull weapon
would only make play towards it. In
fact. realizing his incapacity in that
direction, he wouldn't try it.
In a cavalry encounter at kelley's
Ford ] struck a confederate fair on tho
neck with my saber, and struck as hare
as | could. He tumbled from the sad
die and was captured. | did not eTer
draw blood ! gave him such blow al
to stun him for a few minutes, the SAINT
as if had struck him with club. bu'
aside from a stiff neck he was all right
Big, strong men, with keen-edged sa
hers, would do some awful cutting, an'
they would inspire fear wherever thel
charged. but average men and average
weapons accomplish very little outside
of the moral effect.
Quantrell proved that there was som.
thing far more effective than the sab, r
Each of his men was armed with a
least two revolvers Each one coul,
shoot right and left-handed. A squa'
of thirty of them thus armed never hes
itated to charge hundred regular cav
airy. and they never charged withor
intiicting terrible destruction. -Detrol
Free Press.
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