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Civil War Bayonet

"Give them the cold steel"(General Armistead, right before Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg.)

The Civil War Bayonet was nothing more than a sharpened piece of steel that infantrymen were issued. They would simply stick it on the muzzle of their rifles and off they go.

It's effectiveness was more psychological then physical.

Seeing a few thousand people running at you with large knives on the end of rifles could have a pretty frighting effect.

You might come up with an excuse to leave real fast.

However despite this only about 1% of Civil War casualties were actually a result of a bayonet wound.

Soldiers used the bayonet more often as an everyday tool around their camp rather than a weapon.

In fact they usually never used it at all in actual combat.

Of course there were a few instances where the bayonet made a prominent appearance. Such as during the Battle of Gettysburg when Union General Joshua Chamberlain ordered his men to fix bayonets and then charged down little round top completely routing the confederates there.

These instances though were few and far between.

This weapon wasn't particularly popular with the soldiers and even some troops just threw them away. It was one less piece of equipment that they had to worry about carrying.

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