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Notes on the Origin and History of the Bayonet. by JOHN YONGE AKERMAN, Esq., F.S.A., Secretary

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Notes on the Origin and History of the Bayonet. by JOHN YONGE AKERMAN, Esq., F.S.A., Secretary XXVIII.—Notes on the Origin and History of the Bayonet. By JOHN YONGE AKERMAN, Esq., F.S.A., Secretary. Bead 3rd May, 1860. IN attempting to investigate the origin and history of the bayonet, we en- counter, 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. In the " Dictionnaire des Origines," a recent edition of which was published at Paris in 1833, we are told that the bayonet was first used by the French at the battle of Turin, in 1692, and that it was first adopted by the English in the fol- lowing year. According to the same authority, the first regiment in Prance which was armed with bayonets, was that of the Fusiliers, afterwards the Royal Artil- lery. These statements are, however, liable to some objections, as will be here- after shown. The use. of the bayonet as a weapon of war must be referred to a date much earlier than those there given. In the Memoirs of M. de Puy- segur, we find the following notice of this arm: " Pour moi, quand je com- mandois dans Bergues, dans Ypres, Dixmude, et Laquenoc, tous les partis que j'envoyois, passoient les canaux de cette facon. II est vrai que les soldats ne portoient point d'epees, mais ils avoient des bayonnettes qui avoient des manches d'un pied de long, et les lames des bayonnettes etoient aussi longues que les manches, dont les bouts etoient propres a mettre dans les canons des fusils pour se d&fendre, quand quelqu'un vouloit venir a, eux apres qu'ils avoient tire."b a " Arbalestier" he explains as " a crosse-bow-man, that shoots in, or serves with, a crosse-bow; also a crosse-bow maker.'' b Les Memoires de Messire Jacques de Chastenet, Chevalier, Seigneur de Puysegur. Paris, 1747, torn. ii. p. 306. Notes on the Origin and History of the Bayonet. 423 This relates to the year 1647; but, notwithstanding the obvious advantage of the contrivance, it appears for a time to have been utterly neglected. Thus, in the " Mareschal de Bataille," of Lostelneau, which was published in the same year, 1647, we find no mention of the bayonet, and the musketeers are uniformly armed with swords." More than twenty years afterwards, the invention mentioned by Puysegur appears to have been revived. Sir James Turner, writing in the year 1670-71, thus recommends its adoption : " And, indeed, when musketeers have spent their powder, and come to blows, the butt-end of their musket may do an enemy more hurt than these despicable swords which most musketeers wear at their sides. In such medleys, knives whose blades are one foot long, made both for cutting and thrusting (the haft being made to fill the bore of the musket), will do more exe- cution than either sword or butt of musket. "b In a treatise on " English Military Discipline," published by Hobert Harford in 1680, the author observes: " The bayonet is much of the same length as the poniard [12 or 13 inches]; it hath neither guard nor handle, but onely a haft of wood, eight or nine inches long. The blade is sharp-pointed and two-edged, a foot in length, and a large inch in breadth. The bayonet is very useful to dragoons, fusiliers, and souldiers that are often commanded out on parties; because that, when they have fired their discharges, and want powder and shot, they put the haft of it into the mouth of the barrel of their pieces, and defend themselves therewith, as well as with a partizan." (p. 13.) " We remark also," says he, " that except on the occasions of which I am about to speak (viz., in field engagements), the pike-men are altogether useless, not being eligible for advanced posts, where, in order to give the alarm, it is ne- cessary to make a noise." He further observes, " that in the attack and assault of places, soldiers should be armed with weapons easy to be handled, and which make a great noise, the effect of which is to intimidate those who are attacked." "These reasons," he adds, "and many others have led to the giving this year, to some musqueteers, bayonets to fix in the muzzles of their pieces when attacked by cavalry, thus having the effect of pikes, the use of which will, ere long, no doubt, be abandoned." To the foregoing contemporary notices of the bayonet and its application may may be added the following: " Bayonette (f.), a dagger, or knife dagger-like, such 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. b Pallas Armata, London, 1683, p. 175. 3 K 2 424 Notes on the Origin and History of the Bayonet. as the dragoons wear."—Miege, Great Prench Diet., London, 1688. " Bayonette, a long dagger, much in use of late, and carried by the grenadiers."—Phillips's World of Words, 1696. "Bayonette (Fr.), a broad dagger, with a round taper handle, to stick in the muzzle of a musket."—Dictionarium Anglo-Britannicum; or, a General Eng. Diet., by John Kersey, 1715. " Bayonette, a broad dagger, without a guard, made with a round taper handle, to stick in the muzzle of a musket, so that it may serve instead of a pike, to receive the charge of horse."—New World of Words, by Edwd. Phillips, fol. 1720. We do not learn much from these descrip- tions; but in the "Travaux de Mars," by M. Manusson-Mallet, published in 1685, we find, not only a description, but also an engraving of the bayonet then in use. It appears to have been formed on the model of that mentioned by Puy- segur, and is thus described: " Une bayonette, ou une petite lame mont^e dans un manche de bois; le soldat s'en sert dans quelques occasions comme une demi- pique, en mettant son manche dans le canon de son mousquet ou son fusil."a The accompanying engraving (plate xxi. fig. 3) exhibits this weapon without a guard, and of the simplest form, as described in the " Treatise on English Mili- tary Discipline," above mentioned. In the following year, the form of the bayonet appears to have been changed, and, in this country at least, a uniform or regulation pattern to have been adopted. An example of one of superior execution and finish is exhibited, which has inscribed on the blade, in four lines, GOD . SAVE . KING . IAMES . 2 : 1686." This new species of arm, the introduction of which soon led to the disuse of the pike, was found most effective; but it was attended with inconvenience, which led to the adoption of a contrivance whereby the soldier could discharge his musket, and retain his bayonet fixed.0 When this was first adopted does not appear; but it was clearly resorted to by the forces under Mackay in the Scottish * Les Travaux de Mars, ou l'Art de la Guerre. Par A. Manusson Mallet. Amst. 1685. Tome iii. p. 80. 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. 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 imprac- ticable." Notes on the Origin and History of the Bayonet. 425 war in 1689, who says: " All our officers and souldiers were strangers to the High- landers' way of fighting and embattailing, which mainly occasioned the consterna- tion many of them were in; which to remedy for the ensuing year, having taken notice on this occasion that the Highlanders are of such a quick motion, that if a battalion keep up his fire till they be near to make sure of them, they are upon it before our men can come to their second defence, which is the bayonet in the musle of the musket: I say, the general having observed this method of the enemy, he invented the way to fasten the bayonet so to the musle without, by two rings, that the soldiers may safely keep their fire till they pour it into their breasts, and then have no other motion to make but to push as with a pick."a The merit of this contrivance, however, cannot be claimed for Mackay, for Puysegur mentions that he had seen before the Peace of Nimeguen (1678) a regiment which was armed with swords without guards, but furnished with brass rings, one at the junction of the blade and the handle, the other at the pommel.
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