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M1855 socket bayonet with unusual blade tip


Bob Hudson
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This bayonet has all of the correct measurements for an M1855 socket bayonet, but it has an unsual tip: instead of a normal blade tip tapering to a fine point, this one has the edges of the blade tip hammered over to make the blade narrower. Was this a repair or an

alternative way of making these...or?

 

1.jpg

 

2.jpg

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You are going to get allot of opinions on this. Looks like a field modification. If I had to guess it would be to stick it in the ground. Maybe to hold a candle...maybe tent peg. Yours David

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You are going to get allot of opinions on this. Looks like a field modification. If I had to guess it would be to stick it in the ground. Maybe to hold a candle...maybe tent peg. Yours David

 

I was thinking it would be easier to roast hot dogs and marshmallows this way :)

 

The blade is still 18 inches long.

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I was thinking it would be easier to roast hot dogs and marshmallows this way :)

 

The blade is still 18 inches long.

That is another possibility sans the dog or mellows.

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Wow!, I expected more reply's than this.

 

If you look around online you discover there doesn't seem to be a lot of expertise on such things, especially compared to say, WWII edged weapons.

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I've read here and there that relatively speaking, bayonets were rarely used for the intended purpose during the Civil War, but that soldiers frequently came up with interesting ways of using them to make their lives easier. David mentioned candle holders and tent pegs. Somebody must have needed to do something that made it worth the effort to mod this bayonet. We may never know now what the heck it was. Glad you have documented this one. On this forum, you can never tell what someone may come up with.

 

Mikie

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I've read here and there that relatively speaking, bayonets were rarely used for the intended purpose during the Civil War,...

 

I read that whenever the Union captured a Confederate weapons cash there were usually half as many bayonets as rifles because soldiers just got tired of carrying those and didn't seem to need them. I read an account of one battle where something like 1,500 were people were killed but there were less than 15 bayonet wounds among all casualties.

 

I'd like to get a better of photo of how the edge of this is hammered over. It almost looks like the bayonet was made of some weak iron and the hammered tip seems to add some strength. Was this a low-budget alternative?

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The most likely explanation for this would be a post-war modification to be used as some sort of tool or another useful item. They did frequently use these for purposes already listed but there would not have been any benefit in modifying it in this manner, additionally depending on how much it is bent it may not have fit in the bayonet scabbard. Also I don't know how lenient officers would be on something like that, on the Union side anyway. On the subject of bayonet wounds I have a letter from a Union soldier sent home after Chancellorsville in which he writes "I seen three men run through and through with a bayonet." You just cannot imagine what these men went through.

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I've always have been skeptical of reports that indicate that there were very few bayonet wounds recorded. As I understand it, of the multiple thousands that would die in a given battle, no autopsies would be performed and no records kept of the dead other than for identification purposes. The reports that I have heard about have to do with the treatment of bayonet wounds. I suspect that the vast majority of bayonet wounds were quickly fatal and therefore did not need treatment.

 

As far as the modification made to this bayonet goes, there is no limit to the reasons this might have been done.

 

Marv

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