Were Confederate pikes just a curious item to laugh at?
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No. In the "killer Angels," there was a discussion about how Stonewall Jackson had ordered pikes for his troops (that were never used before he was killed).
The main rifle used by the Union Army in the Civil War was the Springfield Rifle, which was a single shot, not a repeating, weapon. (The Confederates used single-shot Enfields). What gave "guns" a large part of their value up to the end of the 19th century was the bayonets.
If you take that thought along a certain line, you might conclude that "stabbing" weapons would be useful in that kind of a war. Jackson, for one, wasn't big on "firepower." His infantry was described as "foot cavalry", which is to say that he relied on the toughness and endurance of his troops more than their weaponry. He and other Confederate commanders. thought that the main weakness of contemporary blade weapons was that they were too single purpose; using elaborate, multifunctional pikes would take care of that. The most famous Confederate command during Pickett's charges was "Give 'em cold steel, boys." General Armistead was referring to bayonets.
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