The rise of the bayonet lastingly changed warfare
in Europe. As more and more armies relied on this weapon in the 17th and 18th centuries, it
increased not only the infantry's defensive capabilities but also its shock value
and its firepower. Before the bayonet, the armies of Europe used to rely on pikes and
muskets to solve the most basic tactical problem of infantry, namely balancing the interplay
of pike and shot. Armies wanted to optimize their firepower, but still needed pikemen to
defend the infantry against cavalry charges. The bayonet solved this problem by uniting
both types of weapons in a single instrument, the flintlock musket with a bayonet. So, let's
take a look at how the bayonet changed the armies of Europe and how it was used in battle.
Sir John Stuart, commander of the British forces at the Battle of Maida on
July 4, 1806, describes how his troops charged their French enemies with mounted bayonets:
"The two corps at the distance of about 100 yards fired reciprocally a few rounds, when, as
if by mutual agreement, the firing was suspended, and in close compact order and awful silence,
they advanced towards each other, until their bayonets began to cross. At this momentous
crisis the enemy became appalled. They broke, and endeavoured to fly, but it was too late; they
were overtaken with the most dreadful slaughter." Sir Stuart does not really stick closely to the
actual events – in fact, the English did charge, but the French turned to flight before the clash
- this episode shows how such an attack worked and how terrifying it must have been for both sides.
But before we examine the offensive use of the bayonet in detail, let’s see how it functioned as
a defensive weapon because it was the bayonet's defensive utility that explains the weapon's
initial rise and subsequent impact on warfare. In the Middle Ages and in the early modern
period, when an infantry formation was attacked by cavalry, it had various options to defend itself.
Over time, the most efficient method turned out to be sturdy formations of pikemen. If properly
executed, the cavalry had to run against a wall of spearheads, which was absolutely deadly as
long as the defensive formation remained intact. When the commanders of Europe began to rely
more and more on firearms in the 17th century, the dynamics changed. Soon, the army that had more
firepower had an advantage. Consequently, from the Spanish tercio, to the Dutch battalion, to the
Swedish brigade, tactical units became wider, and pikemen became fewer in proportion to musketeers.
They were still needed to put up with cavalry assaults but lacked offensive capabilities.
This inflexible application of pikemen became a problem for the military minds of the time:
they strived to improve the offensive shock effect of infantry without reducing firepower
in order to expand operational possibilities. A solution was found in the first half of the
17th century, when the bayonet made its first significant appearance. The origins of the
weapon are unclear, but the authors of "World History of Warfare" which is widely regarded as
a standard reference regarding military history, assume the idea of a bayonet was born when some
musketeers began to insert long knives into the barrels of their weapons. They did this to improve
their chances in close combat and to obtain an improvised half-pike with which they could defend
themselves against cavalry. Inconveniently, the knives often jammed and then got stuck,
rendering the musket useless. Then, around 1640, the plug bayonet was developed. It was still
inserted into the barrel but it could normally be removed without difficulty. It seems like the
same idea had been implemented a little earlier in China. A bayonet proper is first mentioned in a
Chinese military manual from 1606, which describes a rifle with a barrel into which a sword could
be inserted, making it almost two meters long. The Chinese called it Chòngdāo, rifle sword.
The plug bayonet had one big disadvantage: it prevented loading and firing the musket
while it was mounted. This problem was first solved by none other than Sébastien Le
Prestre de Vauban, the famous French engineer. He introduced new bayonets to the French army
that could be fixed to the side of the barrel. These so-called socket bayonets were attached
with a kind of ring instead of a plug and were set off to the side so that loading and shooting
were still possible while the bayonet was mounted. However, loading while the bayonet was peeking out
above the barrel was very dangerous, especially in the heat of battle, as numerous reports
of hand and arm injuries show. When finally, the much lighter and even more efficient flintlock
rifle became widespread in the late 17th century, European armies increasingly relied on the
bayonet, until it eventually replaced the pike completely in the early 18th century.
Tactically speaking, the defense of infantry against attacks of enemy cavalry remained quite
similar with bayonets. Usually, the formation under attack formed a compact, sturdy square
and placed their bayonets in front of them. At Waterloo, Wellington repulsed the assault of
the Maréchal d'Empire Michel Ney in this manner just before the Prussian army arrived. He had
his troops form hollow, square formations that the cavalry could not break through. Since Ney
had neither infantry nor artillery at hand to break these formations up from a distance, his
cavalry could do nothing but circle the squares in search of a weak spot, while they were being
shot by Wellington's infantry. In the end they had no choice but to retreat. By the time of the
Napoleonic Wars, firepower and shock effect were no longer two opposing factors that needed to be
balanced. They became two characteristics of one and the same weapon. Every soldier was now, so to
speak, a musketeer and a pikeman at the same time. This considerably increased both the firepower
and the shock potential of the infantry. Although the bayonet's most important function
was the defense against cavalry charges, it also became an important weapon against infantry.
One of the first bayonet charges in Europe was made by the French under Vauban during the siege
of Valenciennes in 1677, a city then in Spanish hands. When the Spanish cavalry made a sortie,
that is, a surprise attack on the besiegers, Vauban's troops met them with bayonets fixed. This
slowed down the attack and eventually forced the Spanish to retreat. Afterwards, the concept
of a bayonet charge spread rapidly throughout Europe. It shaped many conflicts over the next
centuries, most famously the Napoleonic Wars. However, the use of bayonet charges puzzled
historians because bayonet wounds were in fact very rare. Rory Muir, an expert on Napoleonic
warfare, explains this with the fact that the main function of the bayonet in combat between
infantry was not to injure the enemy, but to inflict fear. Indeed, as at the Battle of Maida,
most assaults with the bayonet ended with the weaker side faltering, or even turning to flight.
It almost never happened that both sides would stand firm and fight each other with bayonets.
The bayonet charge was actually a great option to end an encounter without great losses. And even
if no one gave way, it was much more likely that the two lines would stop at a distance of a few
meters and fire at each other at close range. It was different when the battlefield terrain
was difficult. If two units met in a forest, a village or in other trying areas, limited
visibility sometimes led to them almost into bumping into each other. If they were too close
to reload, entering melee was the only option. This was the case, for example, in the struggle
for the village of Plancenoit during the Battle of Waterloo. There, the Prussians and the French
fought with bayonets and other melee weapons for control of the village, which lay between the
Prussian army and Napoleon's right flank. But even in situations like this, bayonets were not
usually used in formation. Such fights tended to be chaotic brawls in which all means were used –
the butts of rifles, knives, branches, fists and teeth were just as useful as the unwieldy bayonet.
Nevertheless, there were also some cases of actual combat between two units with bayonets
fixed. In the Battle of Barrosa in 1811, for example, an English unit attacked a French
column. Overwhelmed by the sudden charge, the French broke up and a massacre ensued, as one
English officer reported the day after the battle: "They made, while we were amongst them
(about Quarter of an hour), little or no opposition. We could have taken or destroyed
the whole regiment, but at this moment the 47th French regiment came down on our right. ..."
Tactically, there were two basic options for an assault with the bayonet. One was to attack
in column, which had the advantage of mobility and higher shock value. The second option was
to attack in line, which had the advantage of having more firepower before the clash. As
with cavalry charges, skirmishers and artillery had to prepare the attack and break the enemy's
formation for a bayonet charge to be successful. The defenders, on the other hand, had to
pursue an active defense. Just firing at the charging enemy infantry wasn't enough. They
needed to launch a well-timed counterattack if they wanted to win the encounter and not
just provoke a prolonged firefight. However, what was decisive really was whether the troops
remained calm, how experienced they were, and whether they trusted their officers,
in short, how good their morale was. A bayonet charge was mainly decided by
determination. Whoever got scared and gave way first lost the encounter. For this reason, the
attacking side usually had an advantage because it was carried by momentum, but the balance
was fragile. A single well-aimed volley from the defenders could stop the onslaught and give
the defenders an opportunity to countercharge. The bayonet played a crucial role in many wars and
armies, from the Napoleonic Wars to the American Civil War, from the First to the Second World War.
Some bayonet tactics or similar charge attacks of this period became especially well known, for
example the Highland Charge of the Scottish clans, the massed assaults of the American Civil War
and the Japanese Banzai charge. To this day, many armies still use the bayonet. But as the
shock effect of infantry has lost much of its importance and firepower has become even more
central, it is usually used only as a last resort.
