The standard model of engagement is based on establishing a position
with blade contact to close a line. However,
this Is not the only approach.
Lieutenant George S. Patton, Jr., Master of the Sword at the United
States Army Mounted Service School at Fort Riley, Kansas, offers a different
approach in his 1915 work, Diary of the
Instructor in Swordsmanship. Patton
learned to fence at the United States Military Academy, represented the United
States in the 1912 Stockholm Olympics in Modern Pentathlon, placing fourth of
42 in the fencing event, and subsequently studied under Maire Clery at the
French Army Cavalry School at Samur. The
basic school of his West Point training is unknown, but it is reasonably
obvious that the training at Samur was French.
Patton developed a dismounted training program for the
United States Army cavalry based on the principle of the attack to develop
fencers oriented completely to offensive action, not just with the sword, but in
the broader context of cavalry combat.
He called this program Point Fencing.
The use of the term “Point” aligns this with the French use of “Pointe”
to identify fencing with the point weapons, the foil and the dueling
sword. And it is entirely consistent
with the intended use of the Army Model 1913 Cavalry Sabre for thrusting
combat, largely to the exclusion of cutting.
Point Fencing could be done with either the epee, using the
standard grip, or with the fencing sabre, using a supinated grip with the guard
turned to the inside. The standard guard
position pictured was an epee bent arm guard, with the arm partly extended and
the blade horizontal. In this guard,
engagement was taken with:
- No crossing of the blades or use of sentiment de fer.
- The blades horizontal, parallel, and close to each other. Photographs suggest that the separation was one to two inches.
- The distance such that each point was within approximately one inch of the opponent’s guard.
- Each blade was to the right of the opponent’s blade (assuming both fencers were right handed) and threatening the inside edge of the opponent’s guard.
This is a very different engagement. It abandons three basic purposes of the engagement
common in the point weapons, the closing of a line, the facilitation of the
parry, and the ability to sense the opponent’s actions. However, it makes sense as training for
cavalry. In the violent clash of two
bodies of cavalry on the charge, there was no time to engage or feel the
opponent’s blade as a basis for your actions.
As for defense, Patton suggested that the proper defense was an opponent
transfixed by your sword.
Copyright 2018 by Walter G. Green III
Patton's Engagement by
Walter G. Green III is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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