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XXVIII.—Notes on the Origin and History of the Bayonet

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2012

John Yonge Akerman Esq.
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Abstract

In attempting to investigate the origin and history of the bayonet, we encounter, at the outset, considerable difficulty; even the derivation of its name is involved in obscurity. In the dictionary of Cotgrave, first published in 1611, we find, “Bayonnette, a kind of small flat pocket-dagger, furnished with knives; or a great knife to hang at the girdle, like a dagger.” The same authority gives us “Bayonnier, as arbalestier (an old word).” In the “Glossaire de la Langue Romane,” of Roquefort, “Baionier” is explained as a crossbow-man. Neither of these words occurs in the dictionary of Palsgrave, published in 1530.

Type
Research Article
Information
Archaeologia , Volume 38 , Issue 2 , 1861 , pp. 422 - 430
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1861

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References

page 422 note a “Arbalestier” he explains as “a crosse-bow-man, that shoots in, or serves with, a crosse-bow; also a crosse-bow maker.”

page 422 note b Les Mémoires de Messire Jacques de Chastenet, Chevalier, Seigneur de Puysegur. Paris, 1747, torn. ii. p. 306.

page 423 note a The cumbrous musket then in use was, in reality, the true cause of the bayonet being so long neglected. The adoption of the lighter arm, the fusil, rendered it at once available.

page 423 note b Pallas Armata, London, 1683, p. 175.

page 424 note a Les Travaux de Mars, ou l'Art de la Guerre. Par A. Manusson Mallet. Amst. 1685. Tome iii. p. 80.

page 424 note b This bayonet was kindly sent for exhibition by Mr. Joseph Clarke, of Saffron Walden, who states that it was found on the demolition of an old house in that town. An example is preserved in the Tower Armoury. (See No. 1 in our plate.) Mr. John Hewitt informs me that 2,025 plug-bayonets were destroyed in the Great Fire at the Tower in 1841. I believe all the bayonets of this pattern to have been made in Germany. The greater part of them bear the Solingen forge-mark, —a crowned head in profile.

page 424 note c In a communication with which I have been favoured by Mr. W. J. Bernhard Smith, he remarks: “When I was at Rome, in 1835, it was the fashion to have plug-shaped handles for the knives used in boar hunting, so as to fit into the muzzle of the rifle; a very injudicious arrangement, as a very slight thrust will often set the knife so firmly into the barrel as to render its removal by the hand alone impracticable.”

page 425 note a Mackay's Memoirs of the Scottish War, p. 52, 4to. Edinb. 1833.

page 425 note b Lond. 1801. Vol. i. p. 162.

page 426 note a Daniel, , Histoire de la Milice Francçoise. Paris, 1721, tome ii. p. 592.Google Scholar In tome i. pi. 22, p. 415 of the same work is a representation of a plug bayonet, and in pi. 33, p. 466, of a socket bayonet.

page 427 note a Siècle de Louis XIV. (Œuvres Complètes, Basle, 1785, tom. xxi. p. 205, chap, xxix.)

page 427 note b Ménioires de M. le Marquis de Feuquière, Lieutenant-Général des Armées du Eoi. A Londres, 1736, p. 68.

page 427 note c First Dragoon Guards, Introduction, p. x.

page 428 note a Art de la Guerre, par le Maréchal de Puysegur, mis à jour par M. le Marquis de Puysegur, son fils. Paris, 1748. Tome i. ch. vi. p. 57.

page 429 note a Among the Harieian MSS. (No. 6,844) is a copy of a “Treaty between the Sovereign of this kingdom and the Duke of Sax Gotha, Nov. 6, 1691,” by which there are “delivered in service to His Majesty of Great Brittaigne, three Reigments,” one of which is “a Regimt of Dragoons of nine Companys, provided with good Horses, Carabins, Pistols, Sabels (sic), Bajonetts, and all the same clothing.” A regiment of foot i s to “be provided with good Musquetts, fire-Locks, and Swine-feathers.”

page 429 note b Even so late as the year 1735 the name was written and printed “bagonet.” “Bagonet is a short broad dagger, made with iron handles and rings that go over the muzzle of the firelock, and are screwed fast; so thatthe soldier fires with the bagonet on the muzzle of the piece, and is ready to act against horse.”—Glossary appended to “Memoirs Historical and Military of the Marquis de Feuquière.” Translation from the French. London, 1735.