1855 Bayonet modified

[The Rooster]

Greetings all. I purchased this today.

I did not know where to post it but it used to be an edged weapon so I'm posting it here.

Ive read they were used by the confederates as entrenching tools or hoes or hooks to drag bodies with.

Or it could have been used as a hoe by civilians ? This appears to have been dug in Virginia according to the paper.

Dont know much about them. Never saw one or heard of them until the other day.

Sellers pics. If you know anything about the history of these, please kindly add to the thread.

Thank you.

[Misfit 45]

I have seen several examples like this.  The historical "explanations" are probably more myth than fact.  It certainly could have been modified during the Civil War, but its use was likely rather limited.

Marv

[The Rooster]

Thank you Marv. To me it looks like a garden hoe, but I did find some limited info on these and it is possible it was used

during the war.

[The Rooster]

They could have been carried by a soldier easier than a shovel to scratch out a hasty shallow prone fighting hole.

I dont believe any of them were issued personal E tools.

Or just as easily been reused as a farm implement ?

[Brad1]

I recall seeing somewhere that bayonets similar to these were also used as candleholders.

[Doctorofwar]

I’ve wondered about these myself.  Knew a guy who had one in his extensive CW collection that was in pretty good condition and he thought it to be a genuine CW entrenching bayonet of limited use.  His description agrees with the only picture/information I have about one in print which is contained in the Civil War Collectors Encyclopedia.

[The Rooster]

Here is a short article

 

https://virginiahistory.org/learn/war-or-murder

 

Very short,....this is it along with this image,

 

"

Digging In

By 1864, veteran soldiers learned to appreciate the advantage of earthen defenses to protect themselves from enemy bullets. Survival came to depend as much on picks, shovels, and axes as on firearms. Tin cups, plates, and other improvised objects—like this bayonet—became digging tools. "

 

It could prob be used as a candle holder once the digging was done, as Brad 1 mentioned.

[The Rooster]

I found this image and comment today of modified bayonets picked off of civil war battlefields.

 

 

"As evidenced by this assortment of bayonets found on Civil War Battlefields, the lowly bayonet could be fashioned into any number of useful (and not so useful) objects such as pot hooks, body hooks, entrenching tools, scythes, candle holders, tent pegs and some whose use is lost to the sands of time.. "