By the 1860s swords played a lesser role in the war than they did in earlier periods. Even so, they still had a vital place in some situations. The use of the sword was vital in the ancient world, but it has become an obsolete technology. The US Civil War was part of the beginning of the end for the production of swords for any practical combat use. Firearms were beginning to become more advanced, but the sword still had certain advantages. The American Civil War saw a dramatic shift in tactics from wars in the past, including the first real combative operations of such as the rifled musket. These weapons, more accurate than the smoothbore weapons to have come before them, spelled the beginning of the end of the edged weapons that had before dominated warfare as the fighting moved from close range, melee battle to medium range shootouts and long-range artillery duels.
Nevertheless, both Southern and Northern forces were issued with a variety of swords depending on their fighting style; cavalrymen, infantry, artillerymen, marines and officers all had distinct weapons issued to them with the intention, once the initial exchange of artillery and musket fire had abated, of defeating the enemy. Cavalrymen, in particular, used to quickly covering the ground and attacking enemy infantry from a mounted position, were issued with a variety of single-edged sabers designed for slashing and hacking. However, the American Civil War included advancements in projectile weaponry including the deployment of the first Gatling guns, machine guns that essentially rendered cavalry charges both obsolete and suicidal. Nevertheless, such tactics and the associated weaponry remained the mainstay of western armies until the First World War.
However, edged weapons did not die out so easily. Around the time of the American Civil War, the sword bayonet was being developed. This 23-inch blade mounted on the end of a rifle or musket turned the slow-to-reload medium-range weapon into an effective spear for close-range work. Though the sword has gradually lost favor since the American Civil War, the bayonet has been successfully deployed by modern armies’ right up to the Second Gulf War and the conflict in Afghanistan.
