Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1892-04-09
nsrRucK WIN THE sAeER..
A Familiar Expression, but Cavalrymen
Find Little Use for the sword I'm Battle.

WIN ~ oh6EH.
A Familiar Expression, but Cava1rymen
Find Little Use for the sword I'm Battle.
From the time we reached the state
rendezvous until we went into camp
on the peninsula IL was drill! drill!
| drill! with the saber, says a writer in
the Detroit Free Press. A corporal
| would take half q dozen-the captain
the whole company, and for an hour
| and a half we would go through the
| cuts and thrusts and parties. There
was the front cut, the down cut, the
| savage thrust, the back-hand cut, and
a dozen others, and we were told that
| our lives depended or knowing how TO
give and receive each particular one.
It was good exercise, perhaps, but on
the very first day we went into a fight
as cavalry all Of US came to see the abb
surdity of it.
/ 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
regiment drove full tilt into about 600
Confederate cavalry at Brandy Sta
ton. ! used my revolver until it was
empty, and then gripped my saber.
The smoke was very thick and men
and horses were greatly excited. In
the mad whirl a Confederate rode up
on me and made a savage slash with
his saber. 1t missed my head and cut
the pommel of my saddle. Before he
could get away l "swiped" 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 "A hoe and could not have cut
the skin.
At Shepardstown we were charged
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. i had a
fair show in that fight to give a thrust,
and it was a lamentable failure. |
got the point of the saber in under the
enemy's appraised right arm, but |
doubt if | drew Dood; | simply pushed
him half out of his saddle, and he re-
taliated with a side cut which uncov-
cred my head and did no further dam
age.
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
numbers, together with the fact thai
very few of the Union cavalry had re-
%volvers. We charged with our car
bines slung to our backs, and it was
saber or nothing. | had a heavy silk
handkerchief inside my new hat that
day as a preventive of sunstroke. 1t
prevented a Confederate cavairyman
from splitting my head open. / had a
young, green horse, and he gave ME
no end Of trouble. While | was trying
to prevent him from going out of the
preached me from the real and admin
istered the down cut. 1t dazed me
for n moment, but the heavy hat and
handkerchief, backed up by a thick
growth of hair, saved my head. He
drew blood, and | had a sore head for
a week after, but he had wasted his
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 |
doubt if any one was killed outright
on ei.ner side with the steel. To make
a saber effective il must carry a keen
edge. During my three years in the
army l 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 s~trong-armed man
to WELD a common cavalry saber so rs
TO strike an effective blow. His horse
must be reasonably steady. so he car
control him with the bride arm, and
there must be plenty of muscle in the
arm to give weight to the blow. With
a sharp saber a man weighing l6(
pounds might split a mans skull, but
Q man weighing thirty pounds less
with a dull weapon, would only make
play toward 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 the
neck with my saber, and struck as
hard rs | could. He tumbled from his
Sddle and was captured. / did not
even draw blood. l gave him such a
blow as TO stun him for a few minutes,
the same as il | had struck him with a
club, but aside from a stiff neck he
was all right. Big, strong men, with
keen-edged sabers, would do some
awful cutting, and they would inspire
fear wherever they charged, but aver
age men and average weapons accom-
plish very little outside of the moral
effect.
Quantrell proved that there was
something far 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 a hundred
regular cavalry, and they never
charged without inficting terrible de.
~struction.