The 19th century introduced the concept of the sword bayonet, a long-bladed weapon with a single- or double-edged blade that could also be used as a shortsword. A triangular blade was introduced around 1715 and was stronger than the previous single or double-edged model. In 1703, the French infantry adopted a spring-loaded locking system that prevented the bayonet from accidentally separating from the musket. īy the 18th century, socket bayonets had been adopted by most European armies.
It had no lock to keep it fast to the muzzle, and was well-documented for falling off in the heat of battle. The British socket bayonet had a spike with a triangular cross-section rather than a flat blade, with a flat side towards the muzzle and two fluted sides outermost to a length of 15 inches (38 cm). Shortly after the Peace of Ryswick (1697), the English and Germans abolished the pike and introduced socket bayonets.
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Soon "socket" bayonets would incorporate both socket mounts and an offset blade that fit around the musket's barrel, which allowed the musket to be fired and reloaded while the bayonet was attached.Īn unsuccessful trial with socket or zigzag bayonets was made after the Battle of Fleurus in 1690, in the presence of King Louis XIV, who refused to adopt them, as they had a tendency to fall off the musket. Shortly thereafter, the defeated leader, Hugh Mackay, is believed to have introduced a socket bayonet of his own invention. The Highlanders closed to 50 metres, fired a single volley, dropped their muskets, and using axes and swords quickly overwhelmed the loyalists before they had time to fix bayonets.
The defeat of forces loyal to William of Orange by Jacobite Highlanders at the Battle of Killiecrankie in 1689 was due (among other things) to the use of the plug bayonet. The major problem with plug bayonets was that when attached they made it impossible to fire the musket, requiring soldiers to wait until the last possible moment before a melee to fix the bayonet. Socket bayonets Įarly 19th-century offset spiked socket bayonet They were issued to part of an English dragoon regiment raised in 1672, and to the Royal Fusiliers when raised in 1685. However, it was not until 1671 that General Jean Martinet standardized and issued plug bayonets to the French regiment of fusiliers then raised. He described the French using crude 1-foot (0.30 m) plug bayonets during the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648). The first known mention of the use of bayonets in European warfare was in the memoirs of Jacques de Chastenet, Vicomte de Puységur.
This naturally prevented the gun from being fired. The bayonet had a round handle that slid directly into the musket barrel.
This allowed light infantry to be converted to heavy infantry and hold off cavalry charges. Įarly bayonets were of the "plug" type, where the bayonet was fitted directly into the barrel of the musket. It was labelled as a "gun-blade" ( simplified Chinese: 铳刀 traditional Chinese: 銃刀 pinyin: Chòngdāo) with it being described as a "short sword that can be inserted into the barrel and secured by twisting it slightly" that it is to be used "when the battle have depleted both gunpowder and bullets as well as fighting against bandits, when forces are closing into melee or encountering an ambush" and if one "cannot load the gun within the time it takes to cover two bu (3.2 meters) of ground they are to attach the bayonet and hold it like a spear". It was in the form of the Son-and-mother gun, a breech-loading musket that was issued with a roughly 57.6 cm (22.7 in) long plug bayonet, giving it an overall length of 1.92 m (6 ft 4 in) with the bayonet attached. The first recorded instance of a bayonet proper is found in the Chinese military treatise, Binglu published in 1606.
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