1796 Heavy Cavalry Sword

Origins

In the 1790s the British cavalry carried a variety of unsatisfactory swords, and after bruising experiences in Flanders the army ordered new patterns for its light and heavy regiments in 1796. The light cavalry got the curved 1796 Light Cavalry Sabre, designed by John Gaspard Le Marchant. The heavy cavalry, the dragoons and dragoon guards who rode big horses and charged in close order, got a sword copied closely from the Austrian heavy cavalry pallasch of 1769 and 1775, which the British had seen in service alongside their allies. It became the regulation pattern for the Household Cavalry, the dragoon guards and the dragoons.

Design & Construction

The 1796 heavy cavalry sword has a straight, single-edged blade 35 inches long, with a broad back and a fuller along each side. As made, the point was a "hatchet" point, rounded on the back and sharpened on the edge, suited to cutting rather than thrusting. The hilt is of steel, with a knuckle bow and a disc guard pierced with holes on the outside, and a wooden grip covered in leather or fish skin and bound with wire. The sword was carried in a heavy steel scabbard. With a weight of around two and a half pounds and its balance well forward, it gave a powerful cut but was tiring to use, and the hilt gave poor protection to the hand. Many swords were reground in regimental workshops, especially during the Peninsular War, to give them a spear point for thrusting, and swords modified in this way are well known to collectors.

Combat Use

British heavy cavalry used the sword through the Peninsular War, most famously at Salamanca in 1812, where Le Marchant, by then a general, was killed leading the heavy brigade's charge. Its greatest day was the Battle of Waterloo, when the Household Brigade and the Union Brigade — the Royals, the Scots Greys and the Inniskillings — charged d'Erlon's infantry and broke them. Sergeant Charles Ewart of the Scots Greys captured the eagle of the French 45th Line in that charge, and his account of cutting down the eagle's defenders is one of the best known of the battle. The heavies then rode on too far and were cut up by French lancers and cuirassiers, whose long straight swords and lances were better suited to the thrust than the British heavy blade; the French light cavalry fought with the curved An XI Light Cavalry Sabre. The sword's weaknesses, and the debate between cut and thrust, were argued in the army for decades.

Legacy

The 1796 pattern was replaced in 1821 by a new heavy cavalry sword with a three-bar and then a bowl guard. As the sword of Waterloo and of the Scots Greys, it holds a special place in British military history, and it is one of the most widely collected British swords. Its Austrian parent and its British twin mean that examples are sometimes misidentified, and marks, scabbards and regimental markings are closely studied.