Confederate Bowie Knife & Scabbard

[Shotgun Steve]

Confederate Bowie Knife & Scabbard
Appraised Value:$7,000
ANTIQUES ROADSHOW

[Shotgun Franklin]

A serious knife for serious business.

[Delmonico]

Early in the war men on both sides tended to carry large knives, most threw them away after the first battle or two.  Memoirs of soldiers tell of that.

[GunClick Rick]

Did they throw away thier sabers too??

[Delmonico]

Dids they throw away thier sabers too??

No them guys who carried sabers rode horses and had the horse to carry the extra weight.  Besides that if you think about it just a little bit, a man on a horse with a saber had a hell of an advantage over a guy walking on the ground.  However the guy on the ground with an empty rifle had a hell of a lot more reach with a bayonet on the end of that long rifle.  You've heard not to bring a knife to a gun fight?  Well it works the same way with a knife in a bayonet fight.  That big long sword was not much use and weighed a lot.  An infantryman that has long marches ahead cuts down on weight that is not useful.  

[St. George]

There's a Civil War era cartoon that describes how the young soldier starting out on campaign is well-equipped with literally 'everything by the folks 'back home' - including a fearsome Bowie - and his knees are buckling.

He's seen marching amid a trail strewn with like items discarded on the march.

By war's end - he's got his rifle, a rubber blanket, and a canteen - having rid himself of superfluous weight...

The Cavalryman of the time actually 'fought' with his saber - to suggest he'd throw away his weapon is ludicrous, since he was trained in its use and it was an integral part of the way he fought.

Soldiers who are actually 'soldiering' keep their load as light as humanly possible - every piece of gear does double and triple duty, or it's not carried.

True in past wars - true now.

Vaya,

Scouts Out!

[GunClick Rick]

What do modern day sodiers use compared to then?

[St. George]

In what respect?

Warfare's changed and modern troopers are burdened with body armor and a whole host of technical equipment.

We're constantly trying to lighten a soldier's load for better combat efficiency and R&D is a continual processs.

'Mission Load' varies with units and with specialties and we're not going to enter into a long discussion of modern-day armaments on a pre-1899 Board.

No matter what - the basic load will always be ammo, more ammo, water and food, but today's resupply is excellent.

Vaya,

Scouts Out!

[Delmonico]

Did they throw away thier sabers too??

And with this link:

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cwnyhsquery.html

you can now do some serious research on what I said.  A few thousand pictures from the Civil War with very high quality down-loads of quite a few mega-pixels.  I don't have time to do a lot on that site, but feel free to.  I've glanced at most of them real quick and I don't think there are many if any at all of anyone carrying a big bowie in a "in the field" context.  Lots of them in studios, some with more than one guy with the same knife.  Remember good documentation convinces me of things.