Bayonet

=Bayonet=

an HMS American Cultures collaborative production
A bayonet was a sharp pointed object like a sword that you would fix onto a rifle barrel. It was like a dagger but it would be attached to a rifle. During the [|Civil War], the bayonet was not really used during battle although there were a couple of instances during the war such as in the [|Battle of Gettysburg]. During the battle, [|General Armistead] gave an order to "give them the cold steel" which was referring to the bayonet. There were many other nicknames given to the bayonet such as the cold steel and many others. There was another instance where the bayonet was used in the battle, it was used in the [|Battle of the Wheat Field at Gettysburg] when one of the [|Flags of the Union] had fallen to the ground and it was the [|24th Michigan's]. Everyone was interested in getting it because it would turn the outcome of the war around. People battled through hand and used the rifle and bayonet to kill the soldier holding the flag to obtain. The bayonet was fixed on if their was more of a hand to hand combat and it was referred to as a close combat weapon. The bayonet was used for more of an everyday tool rather than fighting like cooking food,cutting things, digging trenches, and picking their teeth. The most common rifle used along with the bayonet during the war was a [|Springfield Rifle]. The bayonet was one of the most violent weapons used during the war.



Online Sources:
 * "Civil War Bayonet." //Civil War, American Civil War, Reconstruction//. Web. 31 May 2010. .
 * Civil War Sabres, Swords, and Bayonets, []

Image Sources:
 * Bayonet with Scabbard by unforth, Unforth on Flickr, []
 * File: Springfield 1861 by Smithsonian, Public Domain on Wikipedia, []