That time (Not During the 1860s) that the War Department Bought 128,000 Sabers
“Some Cavalry weapons.” Left to right: M1913 Saber, M1903 Rifle, M1917 Browning Machine Gun, M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle, and M1911 pistol. Taken at the Cavalry and Light Artillery School, Fort Riley, Kansas, between 1919 and 1934.
Signal Corps Photo 111-SC-99216
2nd LT George S. Patton (USMA 1909) was only 27 when his saber design, the straight Model of 1913 Cavalry Sword, which took cues from French military sabers of the 19th Century, was adopted to replace the curved and polished Model 1906 “Ames” Light Cavalry Saber, the latter of which was basically just a Civil War holdover.
The Patton:
Patton saber M1913 compared to officers’ sword of 1902/03 165-WW-392B-003
The 19th-century standard:
Union trooper with stocked Colt pistol carbine, Remington revolver, and cavalry saber identified as Private Amos Reese of Company E, 10th Kentucky Cavalry Regiment (Johnson’s), circa 1862. Liljenquist Collection, LOC, LC-DIG-ppmsca-32685
While the saber in American service wasn’t typically used on campaign after 1865, the Plains Wars being more an affair of carbine and revolver backed up by the occasional Gatling gun and mountain howitzer, cavalry regiments duly stocked and practiced with the “long knives.”
For example: Saber Exercises, Troop “L,” 1st Cavalry, Ft. Custer, Montana, 1892. Note that Troop L was typically the Indian Scout section in U.S. Cavalry regiments from 1866 onward.
Signal Corps Photo 111-SC-104128
The Patton Saber was carried on-horse, rather than the Civil War-era blades mounted on the body.
3d U.S. Cavalry Officer and trooper, equipped for the field. Horse is “Reno,” a four-year-old officer’s charger. Note the M1913 on the saddle and the “3” regimental marked saddle pad. Photo taken at Army Carnival, Washington, D.C., September 1928. 111-SC-95373
Cavalry horse with full pack. Fort Myer, Virginia, 1920. Note the Patton saber 111-SC-68811
26th Colonel of the 3d U.S. Cavalry Regiment, Col. Kenyon A. Joyce, mounted portrait taken at Fort Myer, Virginia, 1933. Note his Patton Saber.
Some horse officers, especially on parade, elected to carry their 1902 pattern officer’s sword instead, or 1906 Ames sabers, a right allowed by command and an easy nod to the fact that officers typically purchased their own swords. A Mess Cape/Boat Cloak kind of thing.
Example: “Draw Saber”, Machine Gun Troop, 10th Cavalry, Ft. Meyer, Va. 1931, with rank and file using Patton sabers and the two officers with 1902s
111-SC-96745
Inset
Note the M1902 officer’s sword. Review of the Cavalry and Field Artillery at Fort Myer, Virginia. A well-trained cavalry horse “Ditto” ridden by Captain Thayer, 3rd Cavalry, 30 April 1920. 111-SC-68437
As detailed by Dieter Stenger in AH90, the Army’s Springfield Armory manufactured at least 35,000 Patton model sabers between 1913 and 1918– a number which seems quite a stretch for the 17 regiments of regulars (two of which had only been formed in 1916) and the National Guard’s three cavalry regiments, 13 separate cavalry squadrons, and 22 separate cavalry troops, a force that, when mobilised, would be only around 18,000 troopers.
All these initial Pattons were stamped “SA,” with the Ordnance stamp (flaming bomb), and date on one side of the ricasso, with the other side stamped “US” and serialized. SA No. 1 is currently in the Army’s Museum system.
An additional 93,000 wartime production sabers were contracted to the firm of Landers, Frary and Clark of New Britain, Connecticut, in 1917 and 1918. These are marked LF&C and were delivered through 1919, with the latter date the most commonly seen.
An LF&C Patton, as seen in a July 1918 Ordnance Corps photo:
That’s a lot of sabers, especially when it is considered that U.S. cavalry troops on the Mexican border did not use the saber in the field, and only two regiments, the 6th and 15th U.S. Cavalry, served in France in 1918, and were sent to the trenches as dismounted infantry.
Nonetheless, post-Versailles, the Army soon formed 20 full National Guard horse cav regiments (101st to 123rd, skipping the 111th and 118th) in four divisions (21st, 22nd, 23rd, and 24th) while the Army Reserve amazingly had 24 brand new horse cavalry regiments, numbered 301st through 324th, in six divisions (!) numbered the 61st through 66th, all established between 1921 and 1927.
Wyoming National Guard’s 115th Cavalry Regiment in its final format, circa 1940, with jeeps and trucks augmenting the regimental band and horse soldiers
If ever fleshed out (pun intended) to their full wartime strength, these 10 Army NG and Reserve cavalry divisions would amount to 47,960 cavalrymen in the field (not counting support units such as artillery and engineers), joining the regular Army’s 1st, 2nd, and 3rd (paper) Cavalry Divisions.
It was almost as if the War Department felt that, since they had 93,000 new sabers on hand, they needed to find 93,000 troopers to hold them!
Nonetheless, the Army officially retired the Model 1913 Cavalry Sword as a standard-issue U.S. military weapon in April 1934, and thereafter were deleted from the TO&E.
With so many M1913s on hand in Army armories in the 1940s, many were cut into sections and converted into a wide variety of fighting knives made by Anderson, San Antonio Iron Works, and others, while the OSS purportedly had some converted for their own use in dropping behind the lines.
Each Patton Sword could make three blades: tip, middle, and handle.
M1913 Patton sabers made into fighting knives. Souce
Thus, if you find an intact M1913 saber on the collectors market, keep in mind the use it has on it likely came after it hit the surplus market in well-cared-for, gently used condition.
As for fighting knife conversions, well, buy the knife, not the story.