The role of the bayonet in the Confederate Army

ShortSeb

Private
Joined
Oct 19, 2019
Location
Vienna/AUSTRIA
Hi, folks!

I got my uniform(s), I got my gear, I got my rifle. Just one thing would be missing now: my bayonet.

Most of the members at my club are wearing one but I am unsure about it. I tried it and with my height of 5.4 ft I am very uncomfortable with it too.

And based on my researches this was a common thing in the real Confederate Army at this time too. Indeed because a lot of young and untrained soldiers just didn't know what to do with "that thing". I read about stories were soldiers just threw their bayonets away based on that reason.

What is your opinion in the bayonets in the CS?

Is it authentic for me to not wear a bayonet? Either I simply just didn't get one (with my '62 Richmond Rifle) or just gave it away because I know I can't use it effectively?
 
There are thousands of references to the Civil War soldier's habit of throwing away useless items like bayonets while on the march. Arthur Freemantle witnessed a review of Confederate troops near Murfreesboro TN in 1863 & mentions the lack of bayonets along with individual mode of dress. One practical use for bayonets was using muskets with fixed bayonets as pup tent poles. Bayonets did, it was universally asserted, make excellent candleholders. Albeit, somebody got a little carried away with that idea...

Bannerman bayonet candelabras circa 1900.jpeg
I am a blacksmith, so had this image in my files. Three Bannerman socket bayonets made into candelabra circa 1900.
 
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I think it would depend on what unit and theater and period of the war you're portraying. You can't just generalize about the entire Confederate army for the entire war.
Exactly.
The winter before the Atlanta Campaign, Confederate General Joseph E Johnston granted many of His soldiers a furlough home.
Some came back with home made uniforms(even officers) and a good deal came back with anything they could find.
In the winter of 1865, the final months of the war, the 36th and 56th Georgia Volunteer Infantry Regiments were combined like many other regiments in the Army of Tennessee.
That was because of Confederate loses at Franklin, Nashville and the start of Sherman's Carolina Campaign.
My great,great grand father was in the 56th Georgia Volunteer Infantry Regiment, and soldiers in that combined regiment received new cadet gray shell jackets made in Ireland that was smuggled in through the Union blockade.
The middle school library were my sons went had several great books about the American Civil War. Better than our local public library.
 
George H. Steuart's brigade entered the Gettysburg campaign with 1,480 muskets, but only 1,069 bayonets, indicating that roughly one in three soldiers of that command (in the Army of Northern Virginia) did not have a bayonet. (Soldier’s Recollections, Randolph H. McKim, aide-de-camp in Steuart’s brigade)

Incidentally, based on two examples, the cost of replacing a bayonet in Lee's army between June to December 1863 was $5 in Confederate currency. A bayonet scabbard cost $1 in October 1863, but by December 1863 had risen to $2. But I do not recall reading of any soldier being charged for loss of a bayonet. (Compiled Service Records of two soldiers from the 15th and 13th South Carolina infantry regiments)
 
In at least a few Western Theater operations, the bayonet was used to dig.

Same in the East; two examples:

(W. Gart Johnson, 18th Mississippi, Confederate Veteran magazine) In Peach Orchard [Gettysburg] the morning of 3 July [1863], we had no utensils with which to throw up earthworks; used bayonets, pieces of board, anything handy to dig a hole for protection.

(Doctor to the Front, Recollections of Thomas Fanning Wood, 3rd North Carolina) Opening of campaign in 1864, not more than two picks to a regiment, and not more than one spade or so. Soldiers cuts canteens in two to use as improvised scoops and used their bayonets to loosen the dirt. Soldiers did what they had never done before – they built breastworks in front of their lines.
 
The Richmond Rifle Musket was issued with a bayonet. Officers were supposed to inventory arms and equipment. Supposed to being the operative word. Did CS troops toss them? At times yes but they were not as scarce a thing as some might suggest.

In many battles such as Chickamauga, Atlanta, Allatoona Pass, Franklin and Nashville the bayonet was used So someone was carrying them. In addition the bayonet is needed for stacking arms.

I would suggest getting a bayonet. Better to have it and not need it at an event than need it.
 
I've just read everything I could find about the little battle of Milliken's Bend in June 1863, on the west bank of the Mississippi River a month before Vicksburg surrendered. A sidebar battle of Vicksburg campaign, only one brigade on each side--McCulloch's brigade of Texans attacking Lieb's brigade of newly recruited freedmen who held a fortified levee. The combat was bayonet on bayonet. Here's a quote from Private Henry Lester in the 17th Texas Infantry, written home shortly after the battle.

“We charged the levee and fought bayonet crossing bayonet. My antagonist was a huge Negro who fired and missed me and then clubbed his gun. I slipped my bayonet through him twice. He then struck at me. I threw up my gun at him to ward off the blow and he struck me over the shoulder. I then sent my bayonet clear through him and finished by firing into him which blew him all to pieces.”

I reckon that's why soldiers north and south were adverse to hand-to-hand melees in which the bayonet would be needed, but it also highlights that not all the soldiers discarded their bayonets. The 17th Texas had been campaigning in Arkansas and Louisiana for over a year by the time of their first combat at Milliken's Bend and he still had his bayonet.
 
Before the Atlanta Campaign a military officer from Europe(Prussia if I remember correctly)had a opportunity to watch a large scale parade and marching drill review of Joseph E Johnston's Army of Tennessee. The Prussian officer noticed at first most of Johnston's soldiers did not have bayonets and then he noticed most did not have shoes.
Welcome, enjoy
 
From what I have read, the bayonet got a lot more use as a tool than a weapon. That said they did have use. It probably depended more on the day, the individual and the commander than anything else. In other words, ShortSeb, do what you are comfortable with.
 
I've just read everything I could find about the little battle of Milliken's Bend in June 1863, on the west bank of the Mississippi River a month before Vicksburg surrendered. A sidebar battle of Vicksburg campaign, only one brigade on each side--McCulloch's brigade of Texans attacking Lieb's brigade of newly recruited freedmen who held a fortified levee. The combat was bayonet on bayonet. Here's a quote from Private Henry Lester in the 17th Texas Infantry, written home shortly after the battle.

“We charged the levee and fought bayonet crossing bayonet. My antagonist was a huge Negro who fired and missed me and then clubbed his gun. I slipped my bayonet through him twice. He then struck at me. I threw up my gun at him to ward off the blow and he struck me over the shoulder. I then sent my bayonet clear through him and finished by firing into him which blew him all to pieces.”

I reckon that's why soldiers north and south were adverse to hand-to-hand melees in which the bayonet would be needed, but it also highlights that not all the soldiers discarded their bayonets. The 17th Texas had been campaigning in Arkansas and Louisiana for over a year by the time of their first combat at Milliken's Bend and he still had his bayonet.

So Private Lester had his rifle loaded while fighting with the bayonet? Was that common? His "huge Negro" seems to have been a pretty tough guy, might have been better to just shoot him at the beginning.
 
One of my great grandfathers had his bayonet until the end of the war; he hid it under his coat and brought it home with him. I have it now and somewhat to my dismay it won't fit on my reproduction Richmond.

Man, that's a great heirloom. Please don't start shaving on it the original to force a fit. I'd be great in a shadowbox with a little plaque about your g'grandfather.
So Private Lester had his rifle loaded while fighting with the bayonet? Was that common? His "huge Negro" seems to have been a pretty tough guy, might have been better to just shoot him at the beginning.

Colonel Allen commanding the 17th had his regiment charge with loaded muskets and bayonets fixed. Don't know how common it was, but this was the regiment's first combat, so all were new and still learning what worked best.
 
Doing an ANV impression I would definitely have one, they were generally a little better supplied. If it's that uncomfortable for you you don't necessarily have it in the field all the time but there are definitely times when you'd want one, dress occasions/parades and such. I've been to events where we had to do guard mounts and required us to have fixed bayonets.
 
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