By Brent Brown
1st. S.C. Cavalry
For reasons beyond the editor's understanding Mr. Brown's footnotes did not survive the file conversion filter and will be added later.
Dissatisfaction with the M1833 Dragoon saber was raised by several dragoon officers, so on December 24, 1838, the Ordnance Department was instructed to purchase British, French, and Prussian sabers for field-testing. 500 British cavalry sabers, 300 M1822 French-pattern cavalry sabers, and 600 Prussian cavalry sabers were ordered. Favorable reports on the 1822 French sabers, tested by the 1st Dragoon Regiment stationed in the west was announced in July, 1840. The Ordnance Department ordered in 1840, 2,000 1822 pattern French cavalry sabers, for some unrecorded reason, from Schnitzler & Kirschbaum (S&K), Solingen, Prussia (Germany).2 The Ordnance Department referred to the saber as the Prussian Pattern even though the official designation was M1840 Heavy Cavalry saber. The S&K made sabers were inspected in Prussia and none of them had U.S. markings or U.S. inspector marks. They were shipped to New York in April and May, 1841.3
The Ordnance Department approached Ames in June 1844 about manufacturing the M1840 saber. 2,000 sabers with scabbards were ordered from Ames in August, 1844. 600 sabers were delivered in October, 1846 with the remainder being delivered in April, 1846. It is thought that Ames had production problems so, when the Mexican War (1846-1848) started, the Ordnance Department ordered 1,000 M1840 sabers from S&K, Afor arming and equipping the militia@. They were delivered in February 1848. This was the last Ordnance Department order to be made from S&K.4
Ames was the only U.S. maker to produce the M1840 saber for the Ordnance Department and made 23,700 by August, 1858 when the last 500 was delivered. No contract records exist to indicate that any officer M1840's were purchased by the Ordnance Department, so the dragoon officers must have purchased their sabers directly from Ames. S&K made bayonets, swords, and other ordnance that were purchased by U.S. and C.S. independent purchasing agents. Many M1840 pattern sabers marked Horstmann, Sheble & Fisher, and Tiffany, to name the most popular sellers, are believed to have been made during the War Between the States.5 Many unmarked M1840 style sabers were imported by both sides during the war. These are called generics by sword collectors. The M1840 is the most popular single saber style copied for production by the Confederacy.
The M1840 saber is distinguished by a flat backed blade (the M1860 is rounded), the front of the quillon has a ridge around it and ends in a blunt point (the M1860 does not have a ridge and has a rounded end), the twisted wire wraps are closer together than on the M1860, and are separated by a cord wound around the wooden handle underneath the leather (the M1860 has grooves cut into the wooden handle). The M1840 scabbard has flat, slotted throat (the M1860 has an oval, dished out throat), the M1840 scabbard drag is more bulbous than the M1860 scabbard, and the M1840 scabbard bands are wider and thicker than those for the M1860.