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Information about this scabbard
The overall length of the scabbard is 560 millimeters. It has a black lacquered leather body with sheet brass mounts and it is strongly contoured to the curve and thickness of the blade. The leather and throat piece are wider along the top edge then they are on the bottom edge forming a wedge shaped cross section. Both throat and tip mounts are held to the leather with two flattened brass/copper rivets on each side close to were the leather and mounts join.
The throat mount is 87 millimeters long and 39 millimeters wide. It is ~17 millimeters thick on the top edge and ~14 millimeters thick on the bottom edge producing a wedge shaped cross section. It has straight parallel edges and the leather end of the mount is perpendicular to the leather body. The top of the throat piece has a flat section of brass with a hole in the shape of the blade, brazed to the throat. There is a round doomed frog stud, 15 millimeters in diameter, brazed to the center of the right side of the throat mount.
The tip mount is 88 millimeters long, tapers from 34 millimeters to 23 millimeters in width and is ~13 millimeters thick. It terminates in a flat oval shaped brass disk brazed in the end of the mount with no finial.
To date, three examples of this scabbard have been recorded. Two were found on the US Model 1855 bayonet and the other was found on a Confederate Fayetteville Armory Rifle bayonet. Both of which have the same blade construction.
Information from other sources
Albert Hardin, The American Bayonet 1776-1964, describes this scabbard as follows under his reference number 69, US Rifle Model 1855. "This is 22.0625 inches (560 mm) long. It's contours are that of the blade, and no other blade style will fit this scabbard. The tip is 3.5 inches (89 mm) long and 1.3125 inches (33 mm) wide. It is flat-nosed without the semi-oval over-cap peculiar to later scabbards of the same general style. This feature, the flush-capped tip, is made like that of the Sappers and Miners scabbard. The throat is 3.4375 inches (87 mm) long and 1.5 inches (38 mm) wide, with a round frog stud button centered on the obverse side. Both mountings are secured by two brass rivets through each side. The scabbard weighs .45 pounds."
Speculation and questions
Some believe that this scabbard was very early production for the Model 1855 Rifle bayonet. It is similar in several ways to the ST01B scabbard made for the US Model 1841 Early Ames Alteration Bayonet. But, why are they found for Model 1855 bayonet blades and not the earlier produced Model 1841 bayonet blades? Two of the known examples are found on a high grade late production Model 1855 Bayonet and a high grade Fayetteville Armory Bayonet. It is uncertain if the scabbards are original to these bayonets but if they are then the scabbards could be a later production. Could the Confederates have produced these scabbards for captured Model 1855 bayonets from Harpers Ferry as well as the Fayetteville Armory Bayonets? Hopefully additional information will be discovered to help solve this mystery.
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