Journal of the U.S. Cavalry Association from Leavenworth, Kansas • 105

THE PRESENT SABER IT'S FORM AND THE USE FOR WHICH IT WAS DESIGNED. By First Lieutenant GEORGE S. PATTON, Tenth Cavalry. ACH point, lunge and the charge saber taught in the Saber Manual, 1914, is also a complete parry for any cut or thrust delivered from the direction of attack. This being the case, it is clearly better to use the lunges now taught, which are also parries, than it would be to use simple negative parries, since this latter, as it does not threaten the enemy in any way, only raises his morale.

The fact that all the attacks taught are also parries, is a fact that is not understood by the vast majority of officers whose only knowledge of fence comes from reading the manual, not from practicing it. Since they see no complicated passive parries described, they think that the trooper is not defended. As just stated, this is not the case. The trooper has but to lunge at his opponent in the manner taught to not only threaten his adversary but at the same time to perfectly protect himself from either a cut or a thrust. A study of the use of the sword from the beginning, shows that when the art of fence (de fence) first developed, that is, when the sword first began to replace armor and shield as a defensive weapon, the parries mentioned aboye were the only ones taught.

They were then called "thrusts of opposition." The complicated passive parries were invented by the various teachers for the use of duelists, where the contestants In addition to criticisms as to the balance of the present saber, many flicers have favored, a slight curve in the blade. More recently, certain Iroop commanders have contended that the Saber Manual (1914) should ontain privision for "cuts" and "parries," and to that extent is defective. explanation of the omission of these features from the Manual, Lieutenant i'atton, who wrote the Manual and who is well known as one of the foremost uthorities on fencing in the army, has prepared the following memorandum the Commandant, Mounted Service School, which has been forwarded 'o the War Department as representing the views of the School. Editor..