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An analysis of the 1914 manual for Saber
Richard P. Alvarez
In 1914, the office of the
Chief of Staff for the U.S. War Department published a small,
pocket-sized book entitled Saber Exercise, written by Second
Lieutenant George S. Patton, Jr., Master of the Sword at the Mounted
Service School, Fifteenth Cavalry.
This slim volume, only 40 pages long, is significant in that it
marks a transitional period of warfare. It is an effort to instruct
20th-century troops in the practical application of the Armes
Blanche on the 20th-century battlefield. The fact that it is
written by a young 2d Lieutenant who will go on to distinguish
himself as a great General of modern "armored cavalry" is of no
The history of mounted combat and armored cavalry stretches back
at least as far as the ancient Assyrians and includes the legacy of
the Eastern horse cultures such as the Magyars, Parthians, Avars, and
the "Mongol Hordes". Horse were used by these cultures for
reconnaissance and harrying tactics as well as mobile "mounted
artillery" in the form of mounted archers. Spears tended to be light
enough to wield with one hand, and were either thrown as javelins or
used with a thrusting motion.
Shock tactics with the lance and the advent of heavier troops
awaited the development of rigid saddles to keep the rider in place
during impact. The Romans used a saddle with four "horns" that
gripped the rider and made heavier impact more practical. Attila the
Hun used a wooden tree in AD 350. The addition of the stirrup,
thought to have evolved in the east, provided two advantages to the
mounted warrior. It allowed the rider to "stand" and so isolate his
body motion through his legs to gain greater accuracy in shooting his
bow. It also provided greater lateral stability for continued
fighting with the sword in the melee, after the initial shock of
charge had broken the line.
It is evident from examining Patton's saber manual that he
envisioned the role of mounted troops at the turn of the century as
shock units, much like the heavier mounted knights
of Medieval Europe.
In a charge, the trooper is merely a projectile, the
saber its point.
In a world where most people still saw horse-drawn vehicles in the
streets, cavalry duels from the Civil War could still be discussed
with a few old vets. Patton understood that the nature of modern
warfare and its weapons would preclude the noble exchange of the
Phrase-des-armes that characterized earlier periods.
The saber is solely a weapon of offense and is used in
conjunction with the other offensive weapon, the horse. In all
training, the idea of speed must be conserved. No direct parries
are taught, because at the completion of a parry the enemy is
already beyond the reach of attack. The surest parry is a disabled
To those of us experienced at fencing, especially saber, it may
come as a surprise that Patton would essentially delete an entire
area of training with the sword. One must keep in mind, however, that
a horse charging at 25mph toward another horse, also charging at
25mph, provides a target that passes by the trooper at a nominal 50
miles per hour.
He is a unit in a line rushing on the enemy with the one
idea of riding him down and transfixing him with his rigid saber,
held at the position of charge saber.
If the approach sounds medieval, it is not surprising. The idea is
to use the saber more as a lance than a sword. The long, heavy,
curved blade of the Civil War (dubbed "Old Wrist-Breaker") was not
particularly suited to Patton's philosophy.
As the charge is the chief feature of combat...
Patton helped design a new issue weapon, not unlike the British
1908 model. It had a yard-long (91.44cm) straight blade with a sharp
point. "All the front edge, and half the back edge, is sharp so that
it may be more easily withdrawn from a body, and also, on rare
occasions, to cut." (p. 5). Its large, solid guard protected the
sword arm and shoulder, and the grip was slightly canted to bring the
point comfortably "in line" at the position of charge to saber.
This "Hell for leather" philosophy of the young lieutenant who
would later be known as "Old Blood and Guts" was instilled in the
trooper through a series of carefully graduated, repetitive drills.
The instruction begins dismounted, so as not to "embarrass the
trooper with a horse." The trooper uses a practice saber. In 1914,
this was heavier than a modern competitive saber, but lighter than
the service weapon.
The position of "Charge Saber" is the same as "Lunge to the Front"
but delivered under a canter.
As the trooper extends his arm and body to the utmost, he
should rotate his hand to the left so that when fully extended the
edge of the saber will be up and the finger nails to the right.
The blade should be at the height of the eye, the line of sight
parallel to the direction of the blade. The body should be bent
forward so as to be nearly horizontal, the trooper making every
effort to reach as far to the front as possible.
While under the charge, Patton warns:
It is a serious error to seek the blade of the adversary
instead of disregarding it and seeking a touch, brushing the blade
aside as a secondary consideration should it interfere. There is a
strong tendency toward this seeking of the blade among men who
have fenced under the old rules. It is prohibited. On foot, at the
walk, it is quite possible to make this sort of a parry and still
have time to touch, but mounted, at a gallop, a man who seeks the
blade of his foe and parries it may escape uninjured but so will
the other man. The speed of the horses is such that the enemy will
be out of reach before the trooper can make an effective lunge at
him, whereas if he disregards the other's saber and lunges at his
body, he will in so doing force his adversary's saber
aside and transfix him. Moreover the very idea of seeking
the saber so as to parry it is taking the defensive frame of mind
and is contrary to the offensive cavalry spirit.
p. 19-20 [Emphasis added.]
A rather sang-froid approach, to say the least. Fencers
will recognize the action of closing the line with a parry while
simultaneously delivering a touch as a "time thrust". Patton calls it
the "Thrust at the right moment" (p. 17). Lest we think the rider
goes about with his arm extended in a perpetual lunge, we should
consider that under the General Plan for Dismounted Combat, there are
four guards, and five points or thrusts taught and practiced by the
Under the General Plan, the normal guard, or
guard to the right front, is assumed as follows:
At the command GUARD, carry the right foot about 24
inches to the right and bend the knees to simulate the position
mounted. Incline the body to the front from the waist (not the
hips). Let the blade fall to the front near the horizontal, elbow
well away from the body, forearm and saber forming one straight
line, edge of the blade to the right, point at the adversary's
breast, at the same time placing the left hand, closed, 6 inches
in front of the belt buckle to simulate the position of the bridle
The manual goes on to instruct the other four guard positions with
advice to avoid startling the horse.
In all movements of the saber from one side to the other
raise the saber slightly when passing over the horse's head so as
not to scare him. This movement should be insisted on dismounted
so as to form the habit.
One might wonder why, if Patton feels the trooper is only a
projectile, he bothers to teach various guards. These guards are
merely neutral positions, from which the thrusts and the charge may
In the charge and the melee, the trooper must remember
that on the speed of his horse in the attack, and on his own
offensive spirit, rest nine-tenths of his chances for success.
Patton sees the melee following a charge, then, as simply another
series of smaller charges.
In the melee, the trooper still goes at speed, riding
down his opponent, but here ranks are broken, and he and his
opponent have more room. ...he takes the position of guard toward
his nearest enemy, crouching slightly in the saddle and alive to
all possible attacks.
In the melee, Patton concedes that a trooper may face an opponent
horse to horse, without a charge. For this reason, he teaches the
lunge, as a counterattack, from the various guards towards opponents
on either flank. After guards and points are mastered at rest in a
mounted posture, body for the trooper to touch. He is taught to
"lunge" to the right and left front and even to the rear. These
actions are practice first at rest, then with the instructor moving
and the trooper stationary and finally with both trooper and
instructor moving along parallel lines. The idea is to teach the
trooper to extend his arm with sufficient "punch" at the moment the
instructor is approximately six inches from the extended point.
If the trooper does this accurately his enemy will have
no time to parry and the speed of the approach of the two horses
will instantly transfix him. This is called the thrust at the
Throughout the manual, Patton stresses the use of the point over
the edge. He gives advice for the instructor:
The instructor who attacks with the cut must carefully
avoid hitting the trooper after he himself has been touched. With
the exercise saber the touch with the point is hardly perceptible
and would not weaken the instructor's cut. In combat however, the
difference in time between a touch with the point and a cut with
the adverse edge will usually be sufficient for the spasmodic
contraction caused by the entrance of the point to render the cut
One has to wonder if the young Lieutenant is speaking from
personal experience. He also gives good advice concerning withdrawing
the point from the target.
In drawing back the hand, rotate the wrist to the right
until the finger nails are up; when the guard is reached, turn the
finger nails down and resume guard as prescribed. The object of
this rotation is to give a more secure hold in withdrawing the
saber from a body. It must be insisted upon at all times in points
and lunges to the right from and in charge saber.
There is a diagram for the construction of a mounted saber target,
and he advises against using suspended targets, as they swing up and
away, contrary to the action of a falling body. Once again, Patton's
vision of the cavalry as a line of shock troops is set forth in the
It must be remembered that in all attacks against the
dummy from charge saber, the trooper is supposed to be in the
front rank of a line charging in close order. His horse is jammed
in the press of horses and can only move to the front.
Patton shows a marked insight into training horse and rider as he
cautions against harsh movements with the bridle hand that would
cause a horse to shy. He also advises putting nervous horses at the
rear of the column in dummy drills. The book contains practical
advice for introducing horses to the sights and sounds of combat. He
also advocates mounted combat drill for the experienced mounted
combatant, with the warning not to practice too hard or too often for
fear of souring the horses.
As to souring men, he offers this warning to instructors who
strike the student with the edge, after receiving the student's
If the instructor disregards this fact, he will get the
trooper to parrying, and spoil him as an offensive swordsman. The
same is true if the instructor, taking advantage of his superior
skill, continually touches the trooper with the point; he will
ruin his confidence. These exercises are to instruct the
man, not glorify the instructor.
p. 20 [Emphasis added.]
Curiously, perhaps anticipating a conflict with Eastern European
cavalry forces, his manual also contains advice in facing a charge
In attacking a lancer, rapid approach is even more
important than against a swordsman. The only moment of danger is
when the point of the lance comes within the first reach of the
fully extended saber. If at that moment, the swordsman lunges,
forcing the lance to the outside, he is safe and the lancer is at
This author's experience with the lance casts doubt on this
advice. Such super-human control and timing seems unlikely to be
acquired under schooling conditions, and Patton advises:
Exercises with the lance should be taught only by
graduate instructors trained in its use.
He does not say how or where those instructors are to acquire such
He does include lessons and exercises in pursuit after the charge,
including a game where one rider ties a ribbon to his left shoulder,
and the other rider must retrieve it. This teaches the rider to
exploit and avoid the Cavalryman's "weak spot", his left ear.
Patton's manual was written at the end of the Mounted Cavalry era
of modern warfare. His vision of a massed body of charging sabers was
reminiscent of a heavy charge of medieval cavalry. His philosophy was
not relevant to wars fought earlier with different weapons and armor,
or even those wars when the hand gun became the common and preferred
weapon of choice for the mounted trooper.
What was Patton's vision of the cavalry charge good for? Perhaps
he saw the charge as useful against what we would call poorly-armed
"third world" powers. Perhaps he foresaw the type of charge practiced
at Beersheba by the Australian Light Horse, where they relied on the
speed of their horses to carry them quickly "under the guns" and into
contact with the enemy (albeit with drawn bayonets rather than
The weapons and tactics of W.W.I were frightening in their
wholesale slaughter of both men and horses. The future of armored
cavalry was being debated even as this book was being written. The
U.S. Army continued to train the horse cavalry for active combat
right up through June of 1941, in anticipation of an attack across
the Mexican border.
Re-enactors and devotees of the sword will be disappointed at the
lack of fencing instruction found in this manual, but this is a work
that is a product of its time. It replaced the earlier, 1907 manual
that does contain modified parry-riposte drills. The
sword had very little practical use on the 20th-century battlefield,
and this manual confines itself to those actions which Patton deemed
most appropriate. As a study in a transitional period of the mounted
cavalry it is insightful. As an illumination into the mindset of one
of the pre-eminent military minds of our century, it is
Patton was a historian and something of a traditionalist. Perhaps
he was devising a philosophy that would keep the horse and sword on
the battlefield. This manual, much like the saber designed by the
same man, was an effort to bring the 500-year-old tradition into the
20th century with relevance, élan, and as he so often
described it, that "Offensive Cavalry Spirit".
[Editor's Note: The
Patton Society has graciously put many of the Patton's writings
on-line. His saber manual is, unfortunately, not yet available, but
several of his shorter articles pertaining to cavalry and the saber
are, most notably The
Form and Use of the Saber, Mounted
Swordsmanship, and The