AMERICAN AND EUROPEAN SWORDS 13 



The French military swords of the latter part of the eighteenth 

 century closely resemble those of the same period made in Germany. 

 The French swords of the nineteenth century, however, are free from 

 all foreign influence and are typically French both in design and 

 manufacture. This is true also of the German swords of the nine- 

 teenth century. The Spanish swords of the same period are more 

 tjTpically national in design and more free from foreign influence 

 than the weapons of this character produced in any other country. 



SOURCES OF INFORMATION ON SWORDS AND THEIR OWNERS 



The printed sources of information concerning the history of the 

 swords used in the United States Army prior to 1840 are very mea- 

 ger. The development of the principal types of United States mili- 

 tary swords since 1840 has been described in a publication entitled 

 " Ordnance Manual for the Use of the Officers of the United States 

 Army," first issued by the Ordnance Department in 1841 and ap- 

 pearing since at varying intervals. A very interesting account of 

 " The Fabrication of Small Arms for the United States Service," 

 which includes descriptions of the swords of that period, was pre- 

 pared by Lieut. Col. James G. Benton, United States Army, and 

 published by the Ordnance Department in 1878. Limited informa- 

 tion on this interesting subject may be obtained from the various 

 publications issued by the War and Navy Departments on military 

 and naval uniforms. The references to swords in these publica- 

 tions are, however, with a few exceptions far too brief to be of service 

 to the historian. 



The most important of the publications of this type from the gen- 

 eral viewpoint is the work entitled " Uniforms of the Army of the 

 United States, 1774 to 1889," which was prepared by Lieut. Col. 

 M. I. Ludington, of the Quartermaster Department, and issued by 

 authority of the Quartermaster General of the Army. This publi- 

 cation contains the uniform regulations issued during the period 

 mentioned, and the plates leave nothing to be desired concerning the 

 designs of the various uniforms worn during that period. It con- 

 tains, however, no plates devoted to the subject of the swords used, 

 and these are described altogether too briefly in the text to be easily 

 identified. This deficiencj^ is supplied to some extent by the illus- 

 trations of swords in the Ordnance Manual for 1841, 1850, and 1861, 

 but the period that preceded the first issue of this manual is not rep- 

 resented in these publications, and even the swords of the period 

 thus represented are not all described therein. 



Two unofficial publications furnish much interesting information 

 concerning the military swords of this period. One of these is the 

 work entitled " Regulations for the Uniform and Dress of the Army 

 of the United States, June, 1851 from the Original Text and Draw- 



