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Author: BURTON, Richard Francis Title: A Complete System of Bayonet Exercise. Publisher: London: William Clowes and Sons, 1853.
Notes:A concise, historically significant and instructive volume of bayonet exercises compiled principally for the "setting up" of the soldier by nineteenth century expert swordsman, explorer and soldier, Richard F. Burton.
The manual presents a practical and systematic bayonet drill and comprises instructors' commands and concomitant illustrations: 'The Guards,' 'The Facings,' 'The Advancing, the Retiring, and the Side (or Closing) Steps,' 'The Points,' 'The Simple Parades, the Head Parade, and the Body Parade,' and that of the 'Combined Motions.'
Burton's is an informed perspective, written toward the end of his official army career in the ranks of the East India Company army (1842-53). Observation and experience generated in him a desire to reform the soldier's education, to ensure that the drill would become a recognized branch of instruction. Excerpt: "the bayonet exercise...supplies the recruit with vigour, suppleness, and elasticity of limb - in other words it teaches him the free use of his arms and legs, which the Manual and Platoon tend to fetter and stiffen rather than otherwise. He becomes less likely to lose his balance, he feels the firelock lighter in his hands, and what is of the greatest consequence, he acquires full confidence in that "queen of weapons," the musket." (Excerpt end.)
He [Burton] earned the name "Ruffian Dick" for his "demonic ferocity as a fighter and because he had fought in single combat more enemies than perhaps any other man of his time (Thomas Wright, 1905:section 26)."
The book's reception was initially hostile; general military opinion was that bayonet exercise would make the men unsteady in their ranks: reliance on individual strength and skill, it was suggested, would promote disorder and abandonment of rank. However, some years later, with the European armies and that of the US engaged in perfecting their bayonet practice, Burton's book began to sell in large numbers, purchased by a number of army authorities - and latterly - the British.
"This is probably the rarest of all Burton's books, and forms one of the most important works on the bayonet ever published, and to it can be traced the change in the systems of bayonet drill adopted in most European countries. I believe I am correct in saying that until about ten years ago it was impossible to find any work on the subject that was not based on Burton's work (N.M. Penzer)."
Bayonet History The evolution of the bayonet can be traced to a certain extent to a fortuitous accident. In the mid-17th century irregular military conflicts of rural France, the peasants of the Southern French town of Bayonne, having run out of powder and shot, rammed their long-bladed hunting knives into the muzzles of their primitive muskets to fashion impromptu spears and, by necessity, created an ancillary weapon that was to influence Western European infantry tactics until the early 20th century. The weapon was introduced into the French army by General Jean Martinet.
18th and 19th century military tactics included various massed bayonet charges and defenses. The Russian Army used the bayonet the most frequently in any Napoleonic conflict. Their motto was "The Bullet is foolish, the Bayonet wise". This implies that the bullet of a musket was wildly inaccurate (which was true in most cases), but with the close quarters of bayonet fighting, it was hard to miss. It should be noted, however, that in the thick of a close-quarter combat, many soldiers revert to using bayonet-mounted rifles as clubs, this apparently being a more "natural" way of fighting (as described by military historians like John Keegan).
The American Civil War in the 19th century finally saw the popularity of the sword bayonet. It was a long-bladed weapon with a single or double-edged blade that could also be used as a shortsword. The hilt usually had quillons modified to accommodate the gun barrel, and a hilt mechanism that enabled the bayonet to be attached to a bayonet lug. When dismounted, a sword bayonet could be used in combat as a side arm. When attached to the musket or rifle, it effectively turned almost any long gun into a spear or glaive, suitable not only for thrusting but also for slashing. World War I saw the shortening of sword bayonets into knife-sized weapons, usable as fighting knives or trench knives, so that the vast majority of modern bayonets are knife bayonets.
Condition: Octavo, 30 pages. Includes several sketch illustrations. Limited edition of 750 copies produced by Pierway Publishing. Precisely mirrors original. Handmade and printed on acid-free vellum paper. Maroon dutch comb endpapers. Morocco textured red gilt cloth. Fine condition.
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