THE BAYONET IN MODERN WARFARE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2458, 31 January 1893, Page 3

THE BAYONET IN MODERN WARFARE.

“The most ridiculous weapon known to modern warfare is the bayonet, said Colonel Michael Gallaway. Civilians seem to suppose that the bayonet plays an important part in all battles—that the tide is invariably turned by this romantic, hump-shouldered, frogsticker. Now, as a matter of fact, you could bury iu a ton- acre lot all tlie men who have been killed with the bayonet during the past century, and the graves would not be crowded either. « The bayonet is supposed to transform a regiment of musketeers into a Macedonian phalanx for close fighting, but it doesn’t. It supplies the place of neither the spear of Greece nor the short sword of Rome. It is a hybrid weapon fit only to prod camp loiterers with. A regiment will come sweeping up to a breastwork with fixed bayonets, but once inside the men turn the butts of their guns or go for their side-arms. They realise that the bayonet is but a dress-parade weapon. In our modern battles the antagonists seldom come into actual contact. Battles are now fought with bullets instead of bayonets, and the latter, always a clumsy affair of doubtful utility, has become an altogether worthless incumbrance. “ General Grant recommended that it be abolished iu the United States service and the six-shooter substituted for close fighting. The recommendation was a good one. While the bayonet is the most worthless of all weapons invented by man the six-shooter is the most deadly shortrange tool ever devised. Give me a club three feet long and I’ll whip any man who tries to bayonet me; give me a sixshooter and I’ll make a bad break in any column of bayonets.” —St. Louis GlobeDemocrat.