PART 1. AMERICAN SWORDS 



MILITARY SWORDS, 1750 TO 1800 



The history of the American military sword begins with the es- 

 tablishment of the United States as a military power during the 

 period of the Revolution. The swords of this period in the Na- 

 tional Museum collection are for the most part weapons used during 

 the eighteenth century by English gentlemen. They are American 

 only in the sense that they were used by American military leaders 

 during the struggle between the United States and the mother coun- 

 try. Many of them were not designed for military or naval purposes 

 but merely for civilian use. They were carried by American mili- 

 tary leaders during the Revolution because they were the only ones 

 available and not because they represented the colonies either in 

 manufacture or design. Such at least is the conclusion that must 

 follow a study of the swords of this character in the National 

 Museum collection. 



SWORDS OF ENGLISH DESIGN 



The fact that the swords of the American colonial and revolu- 

 tionary periods in the collection are so closely connected with the 

 English types of the swords of these periods renders their consid- 

 eration in connection with one another very desirable. During the 

 eighteenth century three types of swords, known respectively as the 

 hanger, the colichemarde, and the small sword, were much used in 

 Great Britain. These probably all originated on the Continent, 

 but the English makers produced weapons that, while retaining the 

 main characteristics of their original models, became typically 

 British in design. The swords of these three types were identical 

 with those carried during the war of the Revolution by many Ameri- 

 can officers who had undoubtedly acquired them from the mother 

 country prior to that period. In many instances these swords were 

 the same weapons that had been carried by American colonial officers 

 in the British service during the French and Indian War, 1755-1763. 



SWORD OWNED BY GEN. GEORGE WASHINGTON 



One of the most interesting of these types of swords from the 

 American historical viewpoint was that known as the hanger. The 

 significance of the hanger arises from the fact that one of the swords 

 carried by General Washington during the Revolution, and now 



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