US Brass Hilted Sword Bayonets

United States Armory at Harpers Ferry

Brief History

In 1799 the second United States national armory was constructed in Harpers Ferry, Virginia (since 1863, West Virginia). The first national armory, Springfield Armory, was constructed in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1794. Harpers Ferry was chosen for this armory by President George Washington in 1796. Initially it was a single room building and employed 25 workers. It was expanded in 1845 to 1854 with the construction of seven new workshops and employment increased to about 400 workers. In 1859, the armory became the sight of the famous seizure by abolitionist John Brown. In April 1861 with the onset of the US Civil War, the Armory was captured by Confederate soldiers. The machinery was shipped south and the buildings were destroyed.

Identifying Markings

Harper Ferry did not stamp their bayonets with a logo or arsenal identification but most are marked with various inspector codes. Some are also found with rifle mating codes on the muzzle ring finial and a federal acceptance code of US on the blade ricasso.

The muzzle ring finial on this bayonet is stamped with a mating code of A8. This same code would also be stamped on the rifles barrel or bayonet lug to indicate that this rifle and bayonet were hand fitted.

During production, components of the bayonet were inspected at various stages of production and the inspector stamped the item with their initials or mark as a sign of approval. The following two pictures show a couple of these markings.

Identifying Features

All of the Harpers Ferry bayonets have a large foreword swept cylinder shaped finial on top of the muzzle ring. The purpose for this feature may be purely decorative. Outside of Harpers Ferry this feature is only found on a few very rare bayonets; the Ames’ Model 1841 Type II bayonet, the H.E. Leman Musket bayonet and the Georgia State Arsenal & Armory Rifle Bayonet.

In the press stud assembly, there is a notched extension on the spring side of the press stud that prevents the stud cylinder from rotating in the hole drilled through the hilt. This tooled rectangular extension fits into a notch cut into the brass hilt under the spring. Ames Manufacturing also started using this style of press stud at about the same time in history. Who set the standard is unknown.

The press stud spring is 40 mm long. It has been ground thinner on the back side of the spring leaving a circular protrusion around the screw hole. On the front side of the spring, the surfaces around the screw hole has been counter sunk to alow the screw head to seat deeper into the hilt. The amount of tooling required in the Harpers Ferry spring is extensive and not seen to this extent with other manufacturers.