Bayonets....what were they used for?

Bayonets! The word could bring fear into the hearts of the participants of the war...OR it bring some fond memories of things that bayonets were used for.

First and foremost, a bayonet was a weapon. It was the "knife like" extension for a musket and when attached to the end of the musket, it was used to rush into the enemy and inflict the most severe of injuries by stabbing them. When a commander ordered a bayonet charge, most of the time it was used as a psychological weapon and the other side skedaddled. On record, there were very few bayonet wounds throughout the whole Civil War (I think the number is around 900...but I could be wrong). In Gettysburg, the most famous Bayonet charge was issued by Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain while on Little Round Top. Whether that happened the way the "history books" say or not is not what I writing about, but there is plenty of controversy surrounding Chamberlain and the 20th Maine.

But there were other uses that the soldiers discovered for the bayonet. One of the more practical uses was as a candle holder. They would stabbed the pointed end into the ground and place a candle in the end that would attach to the musket. This way, they had candle light to use in the darkness so that they could write letters, play cards, or whatever else they would do to keep themselves busy between battles.

They also used the bayonet to roast meat. When they were lucky enough to actually get fresh meat, they would stick it on the pointed end of the bayonet and use it to roast the meat over an open fire (after all, they didn't have ovens).

They were also known to use these devices as tent stakes. By wrapping the ends of the tents around the bayonet and sticking it into the ground, it would keep the tent nice and taut while they were sleeping.

While, I'm sure there were other uses that I haven't mentioned. The one thing that we should keep in mind when it comes to these weapons and the men.....the men were given just so much stuff....and they could carry just so much....so they needed to make do with what they had. This was just one of the things that they carried with them that would come in handy in a pinch. I admire the ingenuity of these guys. I probably wouldn't have come up with some of the things that they did....but they were smart and when they used their heads, all sorts of things were possible. Maybe this is a lesson that we could use today.