Bayonets!

[ianr38]

Good Evening
This is a very, very general question, but would Civil War infantry have gone into battle with bayonets fixed? I`ve always been intrigued by the depiction of the 20th Maine in the 1993 film who are shown defending their ridge position solely by firepower and are then given a convenient lull in the battle to fix bayonets for the famous charge. But what would have been the reality-on Little Round Top and other battlefields-of converting a firefight phase into an assault/taking ground phase? Would troops have had time in the heat of battle to fix bayonets?
Many thanks
Regards
IanR

 

[rpkennedy]

Good Evening
This is a very, very general question, but would Civil War infantry have gone into battle with bayonets fixed? I`ve always been intrigued by the depiction of the 20th Maine in the 1993 film who are shown defending their ridge position solely by firepower and are then given a convenient lull in the battle to fix bayonets for the famous charge. But what would have been the reality-on Little Round Top and other battlefields-of converting a firefight phase into an assault/taking ground phase? Would troops have had time in the heat of battle to fix bayonets?
Many thanks
Regards
IanR

Generally speaking, reloading a rifle with a fixed bayonet is a risky proposition. Most soldiers would not have kept one on unless they anticipated needing it.

As for having time, there were pulses in most combats when soldiers would have a short break before fighting broke out again. Attackers would pull back far enough to allow them to rally and reform before advancing again.

Ryan

 

[captaindrew]

Bayonets can be fixed in a few seconds, way faster than reloading a musket, so there isn't much of a lull required.

 

[thomas aagaard]

By 1860 the regular army was using two different manuals of arms.
One for smoothbore muskets was found in Scotts on drill book for heavy infantry. Here you have the bayonet fixed basically all the time.
The other was from Hardee's 1855 manual for light infantry. Here the swordbayonet was not fixed, unless you needed to use it.

By the end of the war everyone was using the manual of arms for rifles.
(with the csa version having taken some elements, like how the musket is held doing loading and fixing bayonets from the musket manual)

Obviously that don't tell use to what extent the bayonet was actually fixed. My guess would be that people generally followed the drill books at the start of the war... and later I would think most units fixed if when it made sense to do so.

Generally speaking, reloading a rifle with a fixed bayonet is a risky proposition. Most soldiers would not have kept one on unless they anticipated needing it.

Not if you are trained.
The problem is that it makes your musket front heavy as such more straining on the arms. Both during "prime" and during "aim".

Back during the original covid lockdown i made this:
and yes, Iam not actually loading anything, and the manual of arms and gear, is danish, but the point still stands.

The bayonet points sufficiently out to the side that you need to be really clumsy to hurt yourself on your bayonet.