XXVII.—Notes on the Origin and History of the Bayonet. By John Yonge Akerman, Esq., F.S.A., Secretary.
Read 3rd May, 1860.
In attempting to investigate the origin and history of the bayonet, we encounter, at the outset, considerable difficulty; even the derivation of its name is involved in obscurity. In the dictionary of Cotgrave, first published in 1611, we find, "Bayonnette, a kind of small flat pocket-dagger, furnished with knives; or a great knife to hang at the girdle, like a dagger." The same authority gives us "Bayonnier, as arbalestier[1] (an old word)." In the "Glossaire de la Langue Romane," of Roquefort, "Baionier" is explained as a crossbow-man. Neither of these words occurs in the dictionary of Palsgrave, published in 1530.
In the "Dictionnaire des Origines," a recent edition of which was published at Paris in 1833, we are told that the bayonet was first used by the French at the battle of Turin, in 1692, and that it was first adopted by the English in the following year. According to the same authority, the first regiment in France which was armed with bayonets, was that of the Fusiliers, afterwards the Royal Artillery. These statements are, however, liable to some objections, as will be hereafter shown. The use of the bayonet as a weapon of war must be referred to a date much earlier than those there given. In the Memoirs of M. de Puysegur, we find the following notice of this arm: "Pour moi, quand je commandois dans Bergues, dans Yprès, Dixmude, et Laquenoc, tous les partis que j'envoyois, passoient les canaux de cette façon. Il est vrai que les soldats ne portoient point d'épées, mais ils avoient des bayonnettes qui avoient des manches d'un pied de long, et les lames des bayonnettes étoient aussi longues que les manches, dont les bouts étoient propres à mettre dans les canons des fusils pour se défendre, quand quelqu'un vouloit venir à eux après qu'ils avoient tiré"[2]
