1796 Light Cavalry Sabre

Origins

When the British cavalry campaigned in Flanders in 1793-94, Captain John Gaspard Le Marchant saw that his men's swords were a haphazard mix of patterns, and that they used them badly: they hacked wildly and injured their own horses. The Austrian hussars fighting alongside them were far more effective. Le Marchant worked with the Birmingham sword maker Henry Osborn to design a new light cavalry sword, and he wrote a system of sword exercise to go with it. Both were adopted in 1796, and the sword became the Pattern 1796 Light Cavalry Sabre, issued to all light dragoon and later hussar regiments. Its heavy-cavalry companion, the straight-bladed 1796 Heavy Cavalry Sword, was introduced at the same time.

Design & Construction

The 1796 blade is about 33 inches long, broad, flat-backed and strongly curved, with a single wide fuller, and — its most distinctive feature — it grows wider toward the point, ending in a clipped 'hatchet' tip. Putting the blade's mass toward the tip made the cut powerful and forgiving; even a poorly trained trooper could deliver a disabling blow. The hilt is a plain steel stirrup guard with short langets hugging the blade, a ribbed wooden grip bound in leather, and a backstrap ending in a plain pommel cap; the scabbard is steel with two suspension rings. Makers included Osborn & Gunby, Woolley, Gill and Craven in Birmingham, and blades from Solingen, and officers carried versions of the same pattern with decoration, blued-and-gilt blades and better steel. The sword is not a thrusting weapon, and the point is poorly suited to it; Le Marchant's exercise taught six cuts.

Combat Use

The 1796 went to war with Britain's light cavalry in Egypt, the Peninsula and the Low Countries, and French accounts of the Napoleonic Wars speak of its terrible wounds, particularly severed limbs and heads — contrasted with the French preference for the point. At Sahagún in December 1807 the 15th Hussars routed a larger French force with it, and at Waterloo it armed the British light dragoons and hussars and the hussars of the King's German Legion. Prussia adopted a close copy as its Model 1811 sabre, named for Field Marshal Blücher, and the design spread to Portugal, Spain, Sweden and other allies. A light dragoon's other arms were a carbine and a pistol, and he fought beside infantry carrying the Brown Bess Musket and the Baker Rifle.

Legacy

The 1796 was replaced by the 1821 Pattern light cavalry sword, a more thrust-oriented design that officers and troopers alike thought inferior, and cavalry writers spent the rest of the century arguing whether cut or thrust was better. The U.S. Model 1840 and Model 1860 Light Cavalry Saber have a different lineage, via the French, but the 1796 is widely regarded as the finest cutting sword of the period. It is one of the most collected British military swords, available in trooper's, officer's and Prussian forms, and a leading entry point into Sabers & Cutlasses; buyers should check blade maker's marks and regimental markings, which add greatly to value.