Delighted at the success of my request for a map of one Mexican Expedition fight, I am trying it on with another!
I would like to ask for help if I may, specifically with finding a map or plan of the fight at Carrizal 21 Jun 1916. Does anyone know if one exists, and if so, where I might be able to obtain a copy?
This is one action where there is a view from both sides of the fight by men who were actually there, enabling a composite narrative to be presented in a balanced way. The two accounts I have are 1st Capt Daniel Gonzales, The Fight at Carrizal (typed MS translation by C C Clendenen in his Collected Papers, Hoover Institution) and Capt Lewis S Morey, The Fight at Carrizal, Journal of the US Cavalry Association XXVII Jan 1917.
If anyone knows of any other primary sources I would be very grateful for the details.
Any help you are able to give will, of course, be acknowledged in the book.
Many thanks
Map of the Fight at Carrizal 21 June 1916 Mexican Expedition
-
MikeBlakeUK
- Posts: 17
- Joined: Wed May 20, 2015 4:55 am
- Last Name: Blake
Dusan,
Once again thank you so much. This one appears to have come from the Cavalry Journal too? I will check the scanned copies available on line before asking for any more maps from the Mexican Expedition (and hope that the pages have not gone missing).
As an expert on US cavalry swords might I ask you a question, please? In Steffen's 4 volume work on the US cavalry he says that the 7th kept its old ACW era swords as reminders of its glorious past and was still wearing them in 1916 instead of the Patton model. I have not come across this anywhere else, can you confirm that it is true? Oh, and did Patton really design the sabre often referred to by his name?
Once again, many thanks for taking to time to scan the map.
KRs
Mike
Once again thank you so much. This one appears to have come from the Cavalry Journal too? I will check the scanned copies available on line before asking for any more maps from the Mexican Expedition (and hope that the pages have not gone missing).
As an expert on US cavalry swords might I ask you a question, please? In Steffen's 4 volume work on the US cavalry he says that the 7th kept its old ACW era swords as reminders of its glorious past and was still wearing them in 1916 instead of the Patton model. I have not come across this anywhere else, can you confirm that it is true? Oh, and did Patton really design the sabre often referred to by his name?
Once again, many thanks for taking to time to scan the map.
KRs
Mike
The map is from Morey's account in the Cavalry Journal.
Concerning sabres: Steffen's romantic attribution of the Seventh carrying CW designs for sentimental reasons is entirely misleading (as an aside it should be noted that Steffen's wonderful work has been overtaken, in places, by more recent research and should be used carefully with regular fact checking).
Until May of 1914 the entire cavalry corps was carrying the most recent version of the Light Cavalry Sabre adopted in 1857.
This was because it was an efficient service arm.
In the 1900-1904 period experiments with darkening bronze hilts and bright scabbards took place to reduce visibility in the field.
These experiments were of mixed success and in 1905 20,000 Light Cavalry Sabres, identical in most respects to the bronze hilted Light Cavalry Sabre of CW vintage, except that the hilt was made of steel and it, and the scabbards were produced with an original brown finish by Ames. The browned bronze hilted Light Cavalry Sabre and the browned steel hilt Light Cavalry Sabre were the standard service arm for all cavalry and served side by side until replaced by the Cavalry Sword Model of 1913 from May 1914 onward.
The sword was renamed "Cavalry Saber, Model 1913", in April 1914.
I do not have a specific date for the issue of the Model 1913 to the Seventh Cavalry but I do have a definitive statement from the Ordnance Office of March 27th 1915 that "...issue of the cavalry saber, model of 1913, has been made to all troops of the Regular Army, and all these organizations are now equipped with this side arm". That the Seventh were issued the Model of 1913 is attested to by Sgt. James Klohr, Troop A, Seventh Cavalry. Khlor had completed the mounted swordsman class at Ft. Stotensburg P.I. and was regarded as a swordsman. In an interview he states "...the new long, straight-bladed French style cavalry sabers were issued to the 7th Cavalry about 1915 and replaced the old Civil War type sabers which had been standard cavalry equipment for more than fifty years...".
Then Lt. G.S. Patton was not solely responsible for the new design but was intimately involved with the conception, design, production of samples and adoption of the Cavalry Sword Model of 1913. He wrote the manual "Saber Exercise United States Army 1914", posing for the photographs used for line drawings in it. He was appointed Master of Swordsmanship and expected to teach its uses at the Mounted Services School Ft. Riley. Patton explained and defended it from criticism in several Cavalry Journal articles and continued to champion it for the next twenty years up to, and after, the abandonment of the sabre as a cavalry arm in 1934. He did not do all this alone of course, but his connection to the sabre was such that it has been justly called the "Patton Saber".
Concerning sabres: Steffen's romantic attribution of the Seventh carrying CW designs for sentimental reasons is entirely misleading (as an aside it should be noted that Steffen's wonderful work has been overtaken, in places, by more recent research and should be used carefully with regular fact checking).
Until May of 1914 the entire cavalry corps was carrying the most recent version of the Light Cavalry Sabre adopted in 1857.
This was because it was an efficient service arm.
In the 1900-1904 period experiments with darkening bronze hilts and bright scabbards took place to reduce visibility in the field.
These experiments were of mixed success and in 1905 20,000 Light Cavalry Sabres, identical in most respects to the bronze hilted Light Cavalry Sabre of CW vintage, except that the hilt was made of steel and it, and the scabbards were produced with an original brown finish by Ames. The browned bronze hilted Light Cavalry Sabre and the browned steel hilt Light Cavalry Sabre were the standard service arm for all cavalry and served side by side until replaced by the Cavalry Sword Model of 1913 from May 1914 onward.
The sword was renamed "Cavalry Saber, Model 1913", in April 1914.
I do not have a specific date for the issue of the Model 1913 to the Seventh Cavalry but I do have a definitive statement from the Ordnance Office of March 27th 1915 that "...issue of the cavalry saber, model of 1913, has been made to all troops of the Regular Army, and all these organizations are now equipped with this side arm". That the Seventh were issued the Model of 1913 is attested to by Sgt. James Klohr, Troop A, Seventh Cavalry. Khlor had completed the mounted swordsman class at Ft. Stotensburg P.I. and was regarded as a swordsman. In an interview he states "...the new long, straight-bladed French style cavalry sabers were issued to the 7th Cavalry about 1915 and replaced the old Civil War type sabers which had been standard cavalry equipment for more than fifty years...".
Then Lt. G.S. Patton was not solely responsible for the new design but was intimately involved with the conception, design, production of samples and adoption of the Cavalry Sword Model of 1913. He wrote the manual "Saber Exercise United States Army 1914", posing for the photographs used for line drawings in it. He was appointed Master of Swordsmanship and expected to teach its uses at the Mounted Services School Ft. Riley. Patton explained and defended it from criticism in several Cavalry Journal articles and continued to champion it for the next twenty years up to, and after, the abandonment of the sabre as a cavalry arm in 1934. He did not do all this alone of course, but his connection to the sabre was such that it has been justly called the "Patton Saber".