Lost in the Great Tonewanta Swamp, 1796! Part One©

 

 

 

Author’s note -- I hope that you enjoy learning from this resource!  To help me to continue to provide valuable free content, please consider showing your appreciation by leaving a donation HERE.  Thank you and Happy Trails!

 

Like a film noir detective story, our tale starts in a crowded hotel, on the edge of a dark, trackless forest, when two strangers are forced to share a room for the night together.  One is old, one is young, one is new to the area, the other has been here before, long ago, and has a story to tell.  

 

Most likely, the site of the hotel where this tale was told was in what was then known as Hartford, New York, and today is known as Avon. 

 

 

Lost in the Great Tonewanta Swamp!

 

 

Hartford is on the east bank of the Genesee River, at the end of the “Genesse Country Road”, across the river across was the Seneca town called “Kanwaggers Village”, also spelled as “Canawaugus”, west beyond this point in 1796, was “unbroken wilderness”, inhabited only Native Americans.  The “Great Tonewanta Swamp”, later spelled as the “Great Tonawanda Swamp”, began just past the twin villages of Hartford and Canawagus, and was 25 miles (40 km) east to west and from two to seven miles (3 to 11 km), north to south, it originally covered over 25,000 acres (over 10,000 hectares). 

 

The swamp is the mostly dried up remains of Lake Tonawanda, an ice-age lake that was formed from glacial melt-waters trapped between two nearly parallel glacial moraines. 

 

It was bounded by two roughly parallel ridges, which run east to west, both of which had trails or roads on their summits.  The “Old Niagara Road” ran along the southern most ridge west towards Buffalo New York.  However, near modern day Batavia New York, a trail split off to the northwest, crossing the western edge of the swamp, towards Niagara Falls and Lewiston.  Along the summit of the northern ridge the “Ridge Road” ran from present day Rochester to Niagara Falls. 

 

The swamp was covered in the higher parts, those that were a little elevated above the swamp’s surface, by swamp timber and the lower parts with open marsh and swamp grass.

 

In 1796, both trails were simply native trails marked only with blazes.

 

So, now that our traveler and his companion, “the little, stout Dutchman” have realized that they had circled back on their own trail and that it was close to sundown, how did they survive the night, lost in the “unbroken wilderness” of the “Great Tonewanta Swamp”?  To find out come back next week, to read Part Two!

 

 

I hope that you enjoy learning from this resource!  To help me to continue to provide valuable free content, please consider showing your appreciation by leaving a donation HERE.  Thank you and Happy Trails!

 

I hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me on YouTube at BandanaMan Productions for other related videos, HERE.  Don’t forget to follow me on both The Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE, and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube.  If you have questions, as always, feel free to leave a comment on either site.  I announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.

 

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

 

 

Sources

 

Doty, Lockwood Lyon; A History of Livingston County, New York: From Its Earliest Traditions, [Edward E. Doty, Geneseo, 1876], Pages 485 to 487, https://books.google.com/books?id=zKkWAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Pioneer+History+of+Livingston+County+ny+1871&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi4n_LGl4WJAxX0hIkEHcNQG2kQ6AF6BAgGEAI#v=onepage&q&f=false, accessed October 12, 2024

 

Mather, Joseph H., and Brockett, Linus Pierpont; A Geographical History of the State of New York: Embracing Its History, [John W. Fuller & Co., Utica, 1853], page 400, https://books.google.com/books?id=ux6dTIOOxvkC&pg=PA400&dq=%22great+tonawanda+swamp%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwijofadwoSJAxW1EFkFHa88BiE4ChDoAXoECAwQAg#v=onepage&q=%22great%20tonawanda%20swamp%22&f=false, accessed October 12, 2024

 

New York Secretary of State; Map and profile of the Erie Canal -- Originally published in: Laws of the State of New York, in relation to the Erie and Champlain canals [E. and E. Hosford, printers, Albany, 1825], https://www.eriecanal.org/maps.html, accessed October 12, 2024

 

Reid, John; The State of New York, [New York, Published by J. Reid, 1796] https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3800.ct005429/?r=-0.309,0.249,1.036,0.407,0, accessed October 12, 2024

 

Thomas, Arad; Pioneer History of Orleans County, New York, [H.A. Bruner, Orleans Steam Press, Albion, NY, 1871], pages 22 to 34 and pages 73 to 74, https://books.google.com/books?id=ZuYpAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22Pioneer+History+of+Orleans+County%22+1871&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj78OC0koWJAxXXlYkEHS0IKgkQ6AF6BAgGEAI#v=onepage&q=%22Pioneer%20History%20of%20Orleans%20County%22%201871&f=false, accessed October 12, 2024

 

 

And Now for Something Completely Different - A 19th Century Sword Bayonet! Part Two©

 

 

Last week, we found out that the mystery sword that I had purchased, was a Model 1841 Rifle Sword-Bayonet, Colt Alteration bayonet produced by Collins & Company of Hartford, Connecticut.  For more on how we cracked this mystery, see Part One, HERE.

 

But did it see battle!?

 

But did this sword-bayonet “See The Elephant”, was it ever used in battle?  Hmmm... “the game is afoot” as Sherlock Holmes was fond of saying.  Are there any clues that will help us solve this mystery?  The answer is yes if you know what to look for!

 

First off, the blade is unsharpened.  Often military blades were, and still are, issued unsharpened to preserve their uniformed appearance at dress parades and to reduce the risk of training accidents.  Historically they weren’t sharpened until just before the soldiers went on campaign.  Many military blades that are found today were never sharpened because they were never used. 

 

So, it would appear from the fact that it is unsharpened, that my sword-bayonet never saw battle.  However, especially in the case of American Civil War bayonets, since many soldiers were only taught how to use the point of their bayonet, the edges were unsharpened.

 

But is there any other evidence that this sword-bayonet ever saw combat, or is this case closed?  No, there are knicks and notches in the blade, so the game is still afoot! 

 

But the key piece of evidence is three knicks in the blade, all located between the 13^th to the 16^th inch (33^rd to 40^th cm) away from the point, which is within the forte or strong part of the sword bayonets blade when parrying.  These notches are just beyond the center of percussion or the “sweet-spot” of this sword-bayonet is 9 inches (23 cm) from the tip of the point.  

 

Notch “A” is particularly deep at almost ¹/₁₆ of an inch (just under 2 mm) wide and deep.  The impact occurred on the right side of the blade edge, at a downward angle of approximately 45^o. 

 

The M1841 rifle sword-bayonet attached to the right side of the rifle barrel ,and the rifle was held with the right hand on the butt near the trigger guard.  This means the edge of the sword-bayonet is to the rifleman’s right and its right side faces up.

 

To notch the blade edge in this way, the entire rifle and bayonet would have to be held above our soldier’s head, and his opponent would have had to cut obliquely downward, from above, from left to right, at a 45^o angle.

 

Our soldier, from the guard position (see Figures 1 & 2) would have had to bring his rifle and bayonet up and over his head in such a manner, that the trigger faced upwards to the right and the sword-bayonet’s edge was pointed upwards and perpendicular to the ground.  Perhaps he was attempting to parry or thrust (Figures 3 & 17) at a sword wielding cavalry soldier who was either riding past him from left to right, or, more likely, riding past him on his right side, and who slashed with a Cut Two obliquely downwards, from left to right, to bat the bayonet offline.    

 

Or his opponent could have been an infantry officer who was armed with a sword and who used a Cut Two to sweep down and right and take the bayonet offline. 

 

In either case the sword-bayonet was strongly struck, a mark was left on the blade, and it would have been knocked offline, allowing our soldier’s opponent to initiate a counterattack at him.  It is anyone’s guess if our soldier survived, but I think we can safely say that his sword-bayonet “saw the elephant” and was a veteran of combat.

 

I hope that you enjoy learning from this resource!  To help me to continue to provide valuable free content, please consider showing your appreciation by leaving a donation HERE.  Thank you and Happy Trails!

 

I hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me on YouTube at BandanaMan Productions for other related videos, HERE.  Don’t forget to follow me on both The Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE, and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube.  If you have questions, as always, feel free to leave a comment on either site.  I announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.

 

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

 

 

Sources

 

Adjutant-General's Office, Horse Guards, Infantry sword exercise, 23rd April, 1842, page 17, https://digitalcollections.library.unsw.edu.au/nodes/view/3078#idx36205, accessed October 5, 2024

 

Burton, Richard F.; The Book of the Sword, [Printed by Spottiswoode & Co, London, 1884], page 126, https://books.google.com/books?id=PgYHAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+Book+of+the+Sword&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwia7MfkhPiIAxVBGVkFHSqLHykQ6AF6BAgLEAI#v=onepage&q=The%20Book%20of%20the%20Sword&f=false, accessed October 5, 2024

 

Cary, R. Milton, Lt. Col. Prov. Army of VA; Skirmisher’s Drill and Bayonet Exercise, [West & Johnston, Richmond, VA, 1861], Figures 1 to 3 and 17, https://books.google.com/books?id=zMBJAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Skirmisher%E2%80%99s+Drill+and+Bayonet+Exercise&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiwz_SuoviIAxWImokEHUSaKKgQ6AF6BAgMEAI#v=onepage&q=Skirmisher%E2%80%99s%20Drill%20and%20Bayonet%20Exercise&f=false, accessed October 5, 2024

 

Green, Lieut., William Pringle; Instructions for Training a Ship's Crew to the use of Arms, 1812, [Academy of Historical Fencing], https://swordfight.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Instructions-for-training-a-ships-crew-in-the-use-of-arms-in-attack-and-defence-by-Lieutenant-William-Pringle-Green-1812.pdf, accessed September 28, 2024

 

Sargeaunt, B. E.; “The Development Of The Sword” The Cavalry Journal, Vol. 1, January to October 1906, [The Royal United Service Institution, Whitehall S.W., London, 1906], https://books.google.com/books?id=NGhAAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA311&dq=%22centre+of+percussion%22+sword&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwicpL2U0umIAxVWkIkEHdi6Nvg4ChDoAXoECAYQAg#v=onepage&q=%22centre%20of%20percussion%22%20sword&f=false, accessed October 5, 2024

 

Unknown, Instructions For The Exercise Of Small Arms, Field Pieces, Etc., [Printed by Harrison & Sons, London, 1859], page 95, https://books.google.com/books?id=r1gBAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Instructions+For+The+Exercise+Of+Small+Arms,+Field+Pieces,&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj-oLfW__eIAxVqF2IAHVrAIG8Q6AF6BAgFEAI#v=onepage&q=Instructions%20For%20The%20Exercise%20Of%20Small%20Arms%2C%20Field%20Pieces%2C&f=false, accessed October 5, 2024

 

Wikimedia, “Battle of White Oak Swamp”, 1862, by Alfred Waud, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Battle_of_White_Oak_Swamp.jpg, accessed October 5, 2024

 

Wikimedia; “Vertical study of soldier on horseback (horse is just suggested), with a sword in the hand of his upraised right arm and the reigns in his left”, by Winslow Homer, 1863, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Drawing,_Cavalry_Soldier_with_Sword_on_Horseback,_1863_%28CH_18173685%29.jpg, accessed October 5, 2024

 

And Now for Something Completely Different - A 19th Century Sword Bayonet! Part One©

 

 

Besides the wilderness and all things survival, my two other great passions are history and all-things-sharp and sword fighting.

 

Last weekend, I bought a mystery sword-bayonet, stamped with the year 1862 on the left ricasso. 

 

And now for something completely different, let’s talk about 19^th century swords-bayonets!

 

 

But just what model is it, and who made it...?

 

So, there is a mystery to be solved, who made this sword-bayonet and just what model sword-bayonet is it? 

 

Just the facts Ma’am, we know that this sword-bayonet, was made in 1862, although the number “2” is a little hard to read, but more on that in a moment.  And it has a re-curved or “yataghan” shaped blade. 

 

The word “yataghan” comes from the Turkish word for “one who lays down”, which describes the downward re-curved blade, of this Turkic-origin sword.  The re-curve added strength and rigidity to the blade, while keeping the hilt and point in alignment for maximum thrusting efficiency and at the same time kept the blade point away from the line of the muzzle bore, allowing for safer reloading of muzzle loading rifles.

 

But unfortunately, this doesn’t help us to identify this sword-bayonet, as the first yataghan sword-bayonet, the M1840 French Chassepot Bayonet (which was designed to fit the French M1866 Chassepot Rifled Infantry Musket) was one of the most widely copied designs of all the sword-bayonets.  During the 19^th century, the United States, Egypt, Belgium, and Argentina all manufactured or used this type of bayonet.

 

Since, it is a common blade type and there’s not a maker’s mark stamped on the blade, we are going to have to compare the brass hilt to pictures of other sword bayonets from around 1862 and to limit the search to something approaching reasonable, I started by assuming that this sword-bayonet is a relict of American Civil War and was made by the Union side.

 

The bayonet I purchased has 14 ribs on the grip, and it doesn’t have a steel rivet through the center of the cross into the blade.  Also, it has a lug slot that is chamfered on both sides, with the stop end is squared, and it has no guide slot.  Additionally, it has the number 10156 stamped vertically into the flat of the hilt.  Interestingly, the “2” in 1862, stamped on the blade, is equally as blurry on my blade as it is on the #203 reference blade from “US Brass Hilted Sword Bayonets”.

 

When the sword-bayonet that I purchased was compared to the examples shown on “US Brass Hilted Sword Bayonets”, HERE, it turns out that I bought one of approximately 10,900 Model 1841 Rifle Sword-Bayonet, Colt Alteration sword-bayonets that were produced by Collins & Company of Hartford, Connecticut, and delivered with re-bored rifles by the Colt Patent Firearms Company to the United State Arsenals in 1862. 

 

So, the mystery is solved, I found a M1841 Rifle Sword-Bayonet, manufactured in 1862, by Collins & Co., but just how did its original user, use it as a sword or as a bayonet?  That will have to be a mystery for next week!

 

I hope that you enjoy learning from this resource!  To help me to continue to provide valuable free content, please consider showing your appreciation by leaving a donation HERE.  Thank you and Happy Trails!

 

I hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me on YouTube at BandanaMan Productions for other related videos, HERE.  Don’t forget to follow me on both The Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE, and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube.  If you have questions, as always, feel free to leave a comment on either site.  I announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.

 

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

 

 

Sources

 

Bennett, Julian; “Bayonets for the Peabody-Martini Rifle”, Arms & Armour, Vol. 16, No. 1, pages 75 to 104, https://repository.bilkent.edu.tr/server/api/core/bitstreams/3ea5e93b-803b-4b7b-9751-3861eb721d37/content, accessed September 28, 2024

 

Green, Lieut., William Pringle; Instructions for Training a Ship's Crew to the use of Arms, 1812, [Academy of Historical Fencing], https://swordfight.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Instructions-for-training-a-ships-crew-in-the-use-of-arms-in-attack-and-defence-by-Lieutenant-William-Pringle-Green-1812.pdf, accessed September 28, 2024

 

Marey-Monge, Colonel Guillaume Stanislaus; Memoir on Swords, Etc., [John Weale, London, 1860], https://books.google.com/books?id=uLKxWGd4xt8C&pg=PR7&dq=%22yataghan+in+the+tower+armoury%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi17Jv98OWIAxU-FFkFHeV8IU8Q6AF6BAgKEAI#v=onepage&q=%22yataghan%20in%20the%20tower%20armoury%22&f=false, accessed September 28, 2024

 

Wikimedia; “Bayonet charge on Plateau of Touvent by French colonial Zouave troops from North Africa”, June 19, 1915, by L'Illustration No 3772, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bayonet_charge_on_Plateau_of_Touvent_by_French_colonial_Zouave_troops_from_North_Africa_1915.jpg, accessed September 28, 2024

 

Wikipedia, “M1841 Mississippi Rifle”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M1841_Mississippi_rifle, accessed September 28, 2024

 

Wilson, Ronnie; “US Brass Hilted Sword Bayonets”, https://sites.google.com/view/us-brass-hilted-sword-bayonets/home?authuser=0, accessed September 28, 2024

 

Worldbayonets.com—The Collector's Edge Online Bayonet Reference; “Bayonets of France”, https://worldbayonets.com/Bayonet_Identification_Guide/France/france_2.html, accessed September 28, 2024

 

 

Throwing a Bowline©

 

I will be away this weekend, and so here is a vacation-time special on how to tie one of the most important knits – the bowline. 

 

The bowline is used to make a fixed loop at one end of a line that won’t slip, and it can be used to moor boats, hoist, haul, and fasten one rope to another.  This knot holds up best if there is constant pressure pulling against the knot, although paradoxically, this is also its main flaw as it cannot be tied, or untied, when there is a load on the “standing end”, the end of the rope that is not being used in the knot you are tying (the opposite end to the “running end”).

 

You can tie a bowline, or you can “throw” it, which simply means that you use a flowing, throwing motion to quickly wrap the rope into a bowline.  And by quickly, J. E. Weber, the author of “Throwing a Bowline”, states that it takes a practiced, “old salt” just a second and a half to throw this knot.

 

This method of knotting a bowline is similar to a method that was shown to me by a member of the U.S. Coast Guard, which I demonstrated in a video called “How to tie a bowline around your waist, one-handed”, HERE.

 

I hope that you enjoy learning from this resource!  To help me to continue to provide valuable free content, please consider showing your appreciation by leaving a donation HERE.  Thank you and Happy Trails!

 

 

I hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me on YouTube at BandanaMan Productions for other related videos, HERE.  Don’t forget to follow me on both The Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE, and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube.  If you have questions, as always, feel free to leave a comment on either site.  I announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.

 

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

 

 

Sources

 

Weber, J. E.; “Throwing a Bowline”, Motor Boating, July 1966, page 38, https://books.google.com/books?id=0yXNIcE7uxYC&pg=PA38&dq=%22throwing+a+bowline%22+%22motor+boating&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjGipC7p9CIAxXfKlkFHfnONtYQ6AF6BAgFEAI#v=onepage&q=%22throwing%20a%20bowline%22%20%22motor%20boating&f=false, accessed September 19, 2024

 

Wikimedia, “Bowline knot”, March 9, 2008, by Markus Bärlocher, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Palstek_innen.jpg, accessed September 18, 2024