An American War of 1812 era cutlass

JamesKelly · 11th February 2019, 12:38 AM

With respect to the use of a British cavalry sabre "...the blunt end could snap bones and crack skulls" my 4X Great- grandfather William Kelly was on the wrong end of one of these in May 1778. Thanks to the skill of one Dr. Wilford, a British surgeon in Philadelphia, who "...dressed the Wound...and took from it a part of the Scull", I am here to enjoy this site.

Jim McDougall · 11th February 2019, 02:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JamesKelly

With respect to the use of a British cavalry sabre "...the blunt end could snap bones and crack skulls" my 4X Great- grandfather William Kelly was on the wrong end of one of these in May 1778. Thanks to the skill of one Dr. Wilford, a British surgeon in Philadelphia, who "...dressed the Wound...and took from it a part of the Scull", I am here to enjoy this site.

James, thank you so much for adding this interesting note!!! It really adds dimension to the actual use of these weapons to have these kinds of real time experiences passed down in family history. It is often surprising to see how many sword injuries were actually from blunt force trauma.

M ELEY · 13th February 2019, 01:10 AM

Welcome to the Forum, James! Sorry I missed your post earlier. It was a simple fact that it would have been impossible back in the day to train sailors in the fine art of fencing. Despite the glamour of the old Errol Flynn movies, with the exception of perhaps the captain and officers, most of the old salts would be lucky to even get a cutlass rather than a belay pin or some such. Cutlass drill was very primitive and simple, consisting of mostly clumsy strikes and the head and upper limbs and an occasional slashing blow and stab to the mid-section.

Most injuries delivered by cutlasses (especially in the later periods of Fighting Sail (1790's-1800's) were delivered to the enemy's scalp and skull with the blunt crushing edge of the cutlass. If you could 'ring the man's bell', stun him or knock him senseless, lacerate his scalp and put blood in his eyes, you could take the fight out of him. In Gilkerson's "Boarders Away", he prints an actual list of casualties from one such boarding raid and it is shocking to see the amount of head injuries inflicted.

It should be noted that the American naval powers took this very seriously and the U.S. were the one naval power that developed a naval helmet/headgear made of tarred leather with deflecting leather slats to decrease the number of injuries from said blows.

Jim McDougall · 13th February 2019, 08:12 PM

Beautifully described Mark!!! and this truly puts things in perspective as far as the actual 'combat' and 'boarding' circumstances in the days of sail. Most of these guys were anything but combat trained and were certainly not fencers!!
Nobody really kept these weapons up as far as sharpening etc. and that was truly a problem with most issue weapons.

In the Civil War, despite all the colorful images of sabre wielding cavalry there were so few injuries ever recorded as sword wounds that references on the medical aspects of the war only mentioned several cases. These were invariably blunt force trauma to the head....not cuts.

Actually dull blades have been a pretty regular situation it seems in many campaigns in history....the British cavalry in India were always complaining of how ineffective their sabres were, In the 1820s when the stout M1796 sabres were replaced with a blade supposed to be more effective in thrusting, the older swords were phased out.
Later the British troops were amazed and horrified at how effective the Indian warriors were with their swords........and even more so when they discovered the warriors were using thier OLD SABRE blades!!!

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11th February 2019, 12:38 AM	#1
JamesKelly Member Join Date: Aug 2013 Location: Michigan, U.S.A. Posts: 108	With respect to the use of a British cavalry sabre "...the blunt end could snap bones and crack skulls" my 4X Great- grandfather William Kelly was on the wrong end of one of these in May 1778. Thanks to the skill of one Dr. Wilford, a British surgeon in Philadelphia, who "...dressed the Wound...and took from it a part of the Scull", I am here to enjoy this site.

13th February 2019, 01:10 AM	#3
M ELEY Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: NC, U.S.A. Posts: 2,141	Welcome to the Forum, James! Sorry I missed your post earlier. It was a simple fact that it would have been impossible back in the day to train sailors in the fine art of fencing. Despite the glamour of the old Errol Flynn movies, with the exception of perhaps the captain and officers, most of the old salts would be lucky to even get a cutlass rather than a belay pin or some such. Cutlass drill was very primitive and simple, consisting of mostly clumsy strikes and the head and upper limbs and an occasional slashing blow and stab to the mid-section. Most injuries delivered by cutlasses (especially in the later periods of Fighting Sail (1790's-1800's) were delivered to the enemy's scalp and skull with the blunt crushing edge of the cutlass. If you could 'ring the man's bell', stun him or knock him senseless, lacerate his scalp and put blood in his eyes, you could take the fight out of him. In Gilkerson's "Boarders Away", he prints an actual list of casualties from one such boarding raid and it is shocking to see the amount of head injuries inflicted. It should be noted that the American naval powers took this very seriously and the U.S. were the one naval power that developed a naval helmet/headgear made of tarred leather with deflecting leather slats to decrease the number of injuries from said blows.

13th February 2019, 08:12 PM	#4
Jim McDougall Arms Historian Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Route 66 Posts: 10,193	Beautifully described Mark!!! and this truly puts things in perspective as far as the actual 'combat' and 'boarding' circumstances in the days of sail. Most of these guys were anything but combat trained and were certainly not fencers!! Nobody really kept these weapons up as far as sharpening etc. and that was truly a problem with most issue weapons. In the Civil War, despite all the colorful images of sabre wielding cavalry there were so few injuries ever recorded as sword wounds that references on the medical aspects of the war only mentioned several cases. These were invariably blunt force trauma to the head....not cuts. Actually dull blades have been a pretty regular situation it seems in many campaigns in history....the British cavalry in India were always complaining of how ineffective their sabres were, In the 1820s when the stout M1796 sabres were replaced with a blade supposed to be more effective in thrusting, the older swords were phased out. Later the British troops were amazed and horrified at how effective the Indian warriors were with their swords........and even more so when they discovered the warriors were using thier OLD SABRE blades!!!