art-of-swords: French Officer Light Cavalry 1822 Pattern Sword This Officer Light Cavalry 1822 Patt

art-of-swords:

French Officer Light Cavalry 1822 Pattern Sword

This Officer Light Cavalry 1822 Pattern was carried by all French light cavalry, Horse Chasseurs, Hussars, Lancers, Horse Artillery, Spahis, and Goumiers. Also this sword was carried in all campaigns from the Mexican expeditions to the Crimean wars, the colonial wars in North Africa for more than 150 years. Even more, this weapon was appreciated by those engaging in honour duels. This would be also the sword used by the US cavalry.

In the main image there are two versions of the same type of sword, one from 1860 and the other from 1892. Both of their steel scabbards had a lower ring that was apparently removed in 1887. After 1887, the swords were carried attached to the horse saddle and not at the officer’s belt.

A curved blade was chosen on the assumption that this blade was also effective in the thrust and to minimize the number of regulatory model, which was the goal of the 1822 reform. Thus the light cavalry sword loses the “quillon” for a “beak” and like the heavy cavalry sword and the heavy cavalry, unique in the world, it also gets a curved blade.

The three bar hilt is moulded in one piece to give extra strength. The brass hilt includes a main branch with two lateral branches converging on the bare arch joint. The weapon has a short-tailed pommel cap and a shell guard ending like a “beak” without a quillon. The blade is marked with ‘C’, ‘C’ and ‘B’ letters that stand for the controllers Chourad, Clemenceau and Jean-Marie Brenier from the Manufacture of Chatellerault.

Source & Copyright: Swords Collection

Oooh.