POTD: United States Military Issue Trowel Bayonet – I Dig it!
Sam.S 11.18.21
Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! I figured since we just had the bowie bayonet to talk about I should show off the trowel bayonet and all its glory along with the rifle it was intended for. As I previously mentioned there was a 50-year stint where the United States ordnance department really wanted to make things more efficient and probably also more cost-effective. This produced strange bayonets that had more than one job. Such is this trowel bayonet from 1873 that was both a short bayonet and an entrenching tool. This came about in response to two big things. For one, at the time the US military did not have a standard-issue entrenching tool of any sort and also with the adoption of breech loading rifles the bayonet was thought of as something of the past.
“It includes a leather sling, a trowel bayonet with 10 inch blade, and a “US” marked bayonet with 16 inch blade and scabbard. The US bayonet also has a leather and brass hanger also marked “US”.
Lot 3223: Springfield Armory U.S. 1873 Rifle 45-70. (n.d.). Rock Island Auction Company. photograph. Retrieved November 17, 2021, from https://www.rockislandauction.com/detail/63/3209/rare-us-1900-krag-bowie-bayonet-with-scabbard.
