THE CAVALRY DRAW

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crazyphil

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I am getting along in years, but I was not a Union Army Officer
in the Civil War. Both the hat and the 1860 Army Colt are replicas.

The holster appears to be left handed, but it's not. Actually
officers and cavalry troopers carried their holstered revolver on
the strong side with butt forward.

Officers carried their swords, and cavalry troopers their sabers,
on their weak side for a strong side cross-draw. With the sword
or saber in their strong hand they could pull their revolver with
their weak hand cross-draw. They could use the so called
"cavalry draw" if their sword or saber was in it's sheath.

The cavalry draw involved twisting the strong side hand to
an inverted position, with palm out, to grasp the stock and
draw the revolver.

It wasn't until early 1900s that our military went to the
conventional butt-back carry that we see almost always today.

If you hold your curser on the thumbnail a photo will appear.
Then you can enlarge the photo by clicking once or twice.
 

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Probably made sense at the time, but doing the "Calvalry Draw" sweeps your own midsection with the muzzle of the handgun. Might not be the best thing to do in a stressful situation, especially if still mounted!
 
m75rlg said:
Probably made sense at the time, but doing the "Calvalry Draw" sweeps your own midsection with the muzzle of the handgun. Might not be the best thing to do in a stressful situation, especially if still mounted!
Click to expand...

I had horses for 20+ years. It cavalry draw makes sense when mounted. You typically hold the reins in your left hand. That leaves your right hand for your sword or pistol. In fact, many cavalrymen also had a butt forward pistol holster on each of the pommel of the saddle.

To draw you pull the pistol straight up to clear the holster, rotate while the pistol is still pointed to the ground, then push forward. You don’t draw across your body. We just don’t use the technique today.
 
Spad has it right, of course.

Keep in mind that for cavalry, the sabre and the pistol were reserved for enemies close at hand; the carbine was for distance; and they were surrounded by soldiers, ideally, who did the fighting on foot. The pistol initially only fired once, then the six shooters that had to be reloaded manually, then the cartridge versions; but the sabre never needed a reload so could be fought with endlessly.

Polo was created to train and challenge cavalrymen, to fight from the horse. Even today we recognize (thanks, Col Cooper) that the pistol is not an offensive weapon, but a defensive one.

What we call a Sam Browne belt was created because Samuel Browne, while an officer in the British Indian Army, in 1858 had his left arm hacked off at the shoulder by another's sabre; and so no longer could support the sabre with his left hand as is still done today; which is to say, a Sam Browne properly has a shoulder strap support that loops over the right shoulder:

princes and sabres (1).jpg princes and sabres (2).jpg

All this was set out in a 1921 newspaper article, explaining how the 'sword belt' had come to be formally adopted after WWI after trialing it during that war. At his death in 1901 he was General Sir Samuel James Browne, VC, for continuing in battle after losing that arm.
 
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Sword or Saber? What's the difference?
Sword is kind of a generic term for almost any long bladed weapon.
Saber is slightly curved blade, sharp on one side only, usually used
by Cavalry.
In Red's photos it appears that Prince Philip's is definately a sword.
Prince Charles appears to have a slight curve in his blade?
But I don't think he was ever in the cavalry. Most of his ranks
are honorary.
 
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Those appear to be extremely poorly fitted sword attachments. However, I expect as ceremonial items they're designed for comfort/convenience rather than practical use.

IIRC, the Prince of Wales was Royal Navy for actual service.
 
Bottom line is, in the heat of any confrontation when you are relying on training and muscle memory, you would probably almost always sweep part of yourself and the mount when accessing the pistol with either hand.

Being that it's a single action and cocking is probably going happen well after that point, it's probably not unsafe enough to worry about considering what else is going on.
 
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Moot

Hiram Maxim made it all a moot point. Still my dad was in the cavalry until it was disbanded then went in the navy until '58. I believe the only way to score a good score on the mounted pistol course was to touch the target as you rode by.
 
Patton

Patton did. He was with the british cavalry school and used their 1908 pattern i believe. The was a small book out called the Last Bright Blades about it history. I have a copy but you might find one on the net.
 
britbike1 said:
Patton did. He was with the british cavalry school and used their 1908 pattern i believe. The was a small book out called the Last Bright Blades about it history. I have a copy but you might find one on the net.
Click to expand...

Yes, Patton developed the 1913 “saber.” However, it is not a cutting sword like most sabers. True sabers have a curve so that you can roll the saber out of your opponent as you ride by. Strait blades tend to go in deeper and stick if used on edge. The 1913 is a point weapon meant to be used more as a spear like the British, German and French heavy dragoon swords. Pick up one, it’s heavy but extends out nicely. The 1860 saber is meant to be used on edge or on point. In the pre-maxim days heavy cavalry was the equivalent of the tank.

Bringing this back to the cavalry draw, because the M1913 was so long it was only carried on the horse. It was carried either strapped to the off side (right side) of the McClellan with the hilt up by the pommel of the saddle and the scabbard under the trooper’s leg or in a carrier attached to the right side of the saddle behind the cantle. And because the 1911 pistol was in use and much easier to reload than any revolver the 1911 started to become favored over the saber. The 1912 holster was specifically developed for use on horseback. It has a swivel so that when mounted you pull the 1911 back out of the holster, not up. It’s easier than the cavalry draw. Oddly, 1917 revolvers were still carried in cavalry draw holsters during WWI.

Randy Steffan wrote an excellent book on US military saddles from the Revolution to the dismounting of the cavalry. And the movie In Pursuit of Honor shows some great US cavalry gear from the 1930s. There is a Patton character in the movie who doesn’t come off too well because he goes over to the mechanized side.
 
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crazyphil said:
Sword or Saber? What's the difference?
Sword is kind of a generic term for almost any long bladed weapon.
Saber is slightly curved blade, sharp on one side only, usually used
by Cavalry.
In Red's photos it appears that Prince Philip's is definately a sword.
Prince Charles appears to have a slight curve in his blade?
But I don't think he was ever in the cavalry. Most of his ranks
are honorary.
Click to expand...

The 'princely' images were only to illustrate General Browne's particular handicap in carrying a sabre at his left side: unable to steady the item in any conditions, he relied on the added shoulder strap for that duty.

1962 bucheimer clark (1).jpg
 
rednichols said:
The 'princely' images were only to illustrate General Browne's particular handicap in carrying a sabre at his left side: unable to steady the item in any conditions, he relied on the added shoulder strap for that duty.

View attachment 382373
Click to expand...

I got your intent in that post Red. But I thought it also
kinda shows Phillip's sword, and Charles saber(?) I think
I see a slight curve in his blade.

As for the Sam Browne shoulder strap looped over the right
shoulder to support saber, or whatever, on the left side...
this was nothing new. Way before belts came into vogue,
straps were criss-crossed over shoulders to support weight
on their opposite sides. Not only swords & sabers, but also
powder horns, possibles bags, pistols, etc.

The evolution of the belt replacing the sash is another interesting
study. Could there be a Beltstory in our future?
 
britbike1 said:
Hiram Maxim made it all a moot point. Still my dad was in the cavalry until it was disbanded then went in the navy until '58. I believe the only way to score a good score on the mounted pistol course was to touch the target as you rode by.
Click to expand...

I had the rare honor of knowing the late Fred Almeraz, Deming, New Mexico. He joined the NM National Guard in 1939 because they still had a cavalry unit. In 1940 the cav unit was disbanded, and they became the 200th Coastal Artillery (only the military could dream up a coastal artillery unit in a desert, land-locked state).

In January, 1941 the 200th was deployed to the Philippines; in December, 1941 the 200th was folded into the mixed units being pushed down the Bataan Peninsula. The night before the surrender, a major told Fred's provisional company that if they wanted to keep fighting, they needed to leave that night to fight with Filipino guerillas or cross the bay to Corregidor. Fred's squad chose Corregidor and were three on each side of a log. They swam across the open bay to Corregidor. They fought on two more months until the Japanese finally got a 240mm shell into Battery Geary's magazine and effectively ended serious defense against Japanese ships.

He spent the rest of the war in a series of Japanese prison camps. Of 1800 New Mexicans deployed in 1941, 900 came home.

Those cavalry boys were pretty tough.
 
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