Reply To: A simple note on the terminology of Black Powder era weaponry

[invisible officer]

Terms can be very confusing. A very interesting thread.

Many armies had the bayonet nearly all the time on the muzzle, so the Prussian. Only marcing in winter on a slippery road made them carying the bayonet into the scabbard. So the men nearly ever handled “arms”.

Many that sing British Grenadiers sing so xxxx that many understand “Our officers march with fuzes”, thinking that they light the matches or even the grenades. But it is fuzees for fusils. A smaller calibre musket. Shorter and lighter and so favored by officers.

Different countries used different terms for same weapon. The French Napoleonic Cuirasser and Dragons AN XI and XIII are called a sabre by the French. The curving was very light and so the Prussians, that captured large numbers, named the same weapon the Kürassierdegen. Degen, a straight sword with slim blade. With broader blade its a Pallasch. Well, sword, for the Napoleonic British army everything was a sword. The straight Heavy 1796 and the curved Light 1796 sword. A sabre. The light 1796 delivered to Prussia in 1813 got called Säbel, not Schwert.
The model for the heavy 1796 was the Austrian Kürassierpallasch.