AMERICAN AND EUEOPEAN SWOEDS 41 



United States Army. The blade is straight and slender with two 

 edges and convex sides. The obverse bears the legend in script 

 " Medical Staff " flanked b}' floral scrolls, and the reverse bears a 

 succession of floral scrolls and sprays. The grip is vase-shaped 

 with the lower portion decorated with oak and palm sprays; the 

 upper portion bears on each side a medallion decorated with the 

 coat of arms of the United States; the pommel is modeled in the 

 form of a pineapple. The grip is not protected by a guard and is 

 separated from the blade only by short scroll-shaped quillons, to 

 the obverse of which is affixed a small shield bearing the initials 

 " MS " above six stars, the whole within a shield-shaped laurel 

 wreath; a similar shield with a plain surface is attached to the 

 reverse. The brass scabbard is plain with the exception of floral 

 sprays at the top, in the center, and at the bottom. This sword was 

 presented to the National Museum in 1902 by Mrs. Osborne Shannon. 



PAYMASTER CORPS SWORDS 



The swords carried by the officers of the Pay Department during 

 this period were very similar to those carried by members of the 

 Medical Corps, except that the blades of the former bore the inscrip- 

 tion " Paymaster Corps." The National Museum collection does 

 not contain a single example of the swords of this type. 



INFANTRY OFFICERS' SWORDS, 1840 TO 1850 



A distinct advance in the development of the United States 

 military sword was made by the adoption in 1840 of the standard 

 weapon known as the Infantry sword. The blade was long, slender, 

 and straight, with a single broad groove near the back. The grip 

 was made of brass and was decorated vertically with grooves and 

 ridges. The pommel was plain and globular, and the knuckle 

 guard was a 4-sided brass strip, which formed a bow below the grip 

 and terminated above the blade in a quillon of the same type. There 

 were no less than three types of this sword : ( 1 ) Those ^^ used by 

 officers not mounted, made with ornamental gilt mountings and a 

 double-heart-shaped counterguard, the reverse side hinged; (2) 

 those ^^ used by noncommissioned officers of foot troops, made with- 

 out the ornamental mountings and without the hinged counterguard ; 

 and (3) those °* with a shorter blade and without the counterguard, 

 used by musicians. The first of these types seems to have been dis- 

 continued when the foot officer's sword, to be described later, was 

 adopted in 1850. The second and third types were used during a 



"> Length, 98.5 cm. Blade, 81.7 cm. long, 2.2 cm. wide. PI. 13, figs. 1-3. 

 87 Length, 97.8 cm. Blade, 81.4 cm. long, 2.2 cm. wide. PI. 13, figs. 4-6. 

 ^ Length, 87.8 cm. Blade, 71.5 cm. long, 2 cm. wide. PI. 14. 



98266—32 4 



