Excerpt from American and European Swords in the Historical Collections of the United States National Museum A secondary aim has been to supplement the literature already available on the general subject of military and naval swords. This aim has arisen, however, more from the nature of the subject than from any special effort on the part of the writer, whose work has been confined to the swords contained in the collection of the United States National Museum and to the sources of information readily available in that connection. The technical history of the American sword remains to be written, and the present paper by no means attempts the performance Of such a serious task. An effort has herein been made, however, to indicate the changes in the designs of the swords used in the Army and Navy Of the United States during the nineteenth century. With this object in view descriptions have been given Of many' swords of technical rather than Of historical interest. The classification of the swords of technical interest only has in many cases proved a difficult task on account Of the scarcity and uncertainty Of the records concerning their origin and history. In such cases the conclusions stated have been based upon a study of the swords of the types indicated in the possession Of the National Ma seum. A study of a larger and more representative collection of swords of this character would undoubtedly have produced more satisfactory and complete results. As already stated, however, the swords of historical interest have been the central theme, and the swords Of technical interest only have been used to perfect as far as possible a historical background for the weapons of personal as well as technical interest. This is particularly true in connection with the swords of American origin and design. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.