Weapons, planes, tanks, vehicles, tactics and strategy often get the glory in military history. But often, the most overlooked yet important element to the success in any battle is communication. Amidst the din of fighting men, horses and gunfire, a commander needed to be able to communicate with his unit at a moment’s notice. Ineffective battlefield communication can spell the difference between life and death, but more importantly victory and defeat. Before the days of radio, communication was handled by drums, horns, flags and even fire and smoke signals. A good bugler was worth his weight in gold to an army, especially during the American Civil War. Every unit had either a drummer boy or a bugler, especially the cavalry. Cavalry bugles, such as this Antiqued 7th Cavalry Bugle, was small enough to keep slung alongside the shoulder or off the saddle while at the same time as effective in combat as cavalry swords were. This particular one features the distinctive 7th Cavalry insignia on the end of the bugle and will look quite handsome as a mantelpiece or on your desk. Civil War accessories such as this speak about a different time, a different way of doing things, that marks the difference between one age and another, where as advanced the technology was during those days, they still operated by and large the same way as the ancient Greeks, Romans, and Medieval armies did. Perhaps it is battlefield communication that really spelled the difference between the way wars are fought today as they were over a hundred years ago.
In the 1870s, the Zulu went to war against the British in Southern Africa. For the first time since the Pharoahs, an African tribe was not only ready, but they had adopted military tactics, discipline, and fighting skill that would make them the terror of the continent. Developed by the legendary Zulu King Shaka, he would build a military machine that would meet its test on the battlefields at Isandwana and Roarke’s Drift. They would run to every battlefield with startling mobility that western armies at the time would only dream about, and they would utilize the concealing terrain of the African savannah to such a degree of skill and accuracy that they utterly surprised the British Army at Isandwana and annihilated it. Among the weapons that struck terror in the hearts and minds of the British soldiers was the Zulu Iklwa, a short spear roughly a yard long with a long leaf-bladed head that made a sickening sound as it was impaled and then pulled out of the victim that it was used against. The Zulus had no understanding to manufacture or use something like swords for the kind of warfare they had developed, and the Iklwa would prove to be quite effective both as a close fighting weapon and as a throwing spear. As simple as most medieval axes to both make and train to use, this weapon is sure to draw attention from your guests the instant it’s seen; best displayed with the iconic Zulu cow-hide shield behind it.
The Swiss were renowned in Europe for basically three things; their notorious neutrality, their excellent cheeses, and notably their Swiss Halberdiers. The Halberdiers were soldiers who mastered a interesting pike called the Halberd like the 17th Century Swiss Halberd. It was a spear with an ax on one side and a spike on the other. The weapon was a mult-tasker; excellent protection for the infantry against cavalry, it also had enough reach to give opposing infantry something to think hard about, but when massed in large formations these had the double effect of terror as hundreds of Swiss troops with these weapons looked like a bristling deadly porcupine. The Swiss took advantage of their unique position in the European continent and their small amount of forces to concoct strategies to use the terrain they would fight on to maximum advantage, so much so that the Swiss were nearly unbeatable in battle because of it. Along with swords and other medieval weapons, the Swiss Halberd was deadly in the hands of these men, having the significance of changing the course of French history by eliminating one of King Louis XIII’s rivals, the Duke of Burgundy in 1478, literally killed when a Swiss Halberd cleaved his skull in two. In so doing, Louis would annex Burgundy and eliminate the last great feudal adversary, unifying France under his rule and those who would go onto wear his crown. The Swiss Halberd is sure to be a featured attraction in your display, one that your guests will want to know more about as they get a feel of this interesting weapon.
Not every weapon the ninja employed were particularly deadly. They didn’t always need to be. It’s important to remember that the ninja was an agent who didn’t always have time or the wherewithal to kill every opponent that crossed his path, and more often than not the truth was that he wasn’t as well skilled with swords as samurai were. Most samurai bushi, or warriors, practiced their combat arts daily; a ninja was lucky if he could manage to do that weekly. But he didn’t have to be to do his job. Even if he was a trained swordsman, he would know fully that getting into hand-to-hand combat was an unnecessary risk. After all, one good hit and he’s done for, and even if he wasn’t hurt, the time it takes to engage an opponent and subdue him is time that he’s not running for his life. When he was being chased, he would employ something like Ninja Caltrops. These ninja weapons were simply either bent pieces of metal shards or spikes that would have one or two prongs up to deliver a very painful stab to the feet of a pursuing guard or horse. Cheap and very effective, put a carpet of these down behind you and you buy yourself a lot of extra time to escape, and live for another mission. Being a ninja is not about being lethal, it’s about being effective in a mission oriented way, and sometimes the most effective deterrents are the most simple and inexpensive.
People like to compare swords from different regions of the world, judging one another by their sharpness and craftsmanship. In this, then, there is no doubt that the Japanese katana is the greatest sword ever designed. It is elegant and amazingly sharp, an excellent weapon of amazing craftsmanship and detail. However, that really doesn’t mean it was better than all other swords for what those weapons had to do. The Japanese never faced off with the likes of a European knight in armor. It’s not at all likely that a katana would’ve penetrated plate or even sufficient chain mail, not especially in the first attack. It’s a razor blade to be sure, but it’s a razor blade. Knight swords, on the other hand, are not just designed to be sharp, and they were sharp enough. They were designed to batter. Getting hit by their sharp baseball bats could be staggering; it could wear down your endurance, knock the wind out of you, even break bones if hit in the proper place. The European long-sword such as this Functional Medieval Battle Sword was meant to get into a fight, parry numerous blows from the opponent before losing its edge let alone break, and punch into his armor when the opportunity presented itself. Going against a big man in full plate armor required something more than a very pretty razor blade; you needed a can opener that would knock him on his back, and stab into his more vulnerable areas. The Japanese katana often faced unarmored enemies, who were permitted to own their own katana, and one stroke was often all you needed. The European sword often faced all kinds of foes, from the Middle East to Ireland, and they were often ready for battle.
The numchucks, or nunchaku as they are properly called, was made famous in America by the great Bruce Lee and the film Enter The Dragon, where Lee single-handedly takes out numerous foes with a pair. This has led many to believe that these were ninja weapons used by the notorious assassins and spies of Japan. The truth is that ninja would not likely use these devices. Nunchaku are really thrashing flails used to flail down rice after harvest, and while they would make good weapons, for the ninja they would be impractical. The ninja was about quick, effective action. If you watch the scene in Enter The Dragon carefully, watch how long that scene goes for. And pay attention to how often his enemies get up; a couple do. This is why the nunchaku is impractical for the ninja. Ninja do not fight in long fights if they can help it. In fact, they’d rather not fight at all; just get in, do the mission, get away undetected. If they ambush someone, they’ve got lots of friends with bows and arrows ready to do the task. Ninja attack quickly, and get away just as fast. Time spent taking down their foes with swords or whatever is time lost that they could’ve spent on the mission at hand or getting away. If a ninja must fight, he’ll go for the first tactic that’ll neutralize his opponent quickly; a stab to the face, a caltrop on the ground, something that causes the opponent to stop in his tracks. Granted, these Wooden Chucks – Black look quite nice and if a ninja wanted a set these would be the ones he’d want; still, it’s a lot of nonsense for him when a knife does just as well a job and gets him away faster.
It was a sad fact in the American Civil War that most of the commanding officers on both sides of the conflict didn’t quite realize how effective their weapons were at the onset of the war, and would not change their tactics of how war was fought sometimes right up to Appomattox Courthouse. They were brought up learning the tactics of Napoleon Bonaparte, who managed to conquer most of Europe, so it was assumed that what was good for him would be good for anyone, and that technology wasn’t really progressing all that fast. But even in the Napoleonic Wars, rifles were being developed that were far more accurate than the standard smoothbore muskets of the time. By the time of the Crimean War, when rifles and Claude Minie’s patented new bullet came on the scene, there really was no real need to form into firing lines anymore because firearms became accurate enough out to 300 yards. The Civil War Replica Bullets are the same type of rounds developed by Minie. Called the Minie Ball, this round was conical instead of spherical, made of a soft lead, with a gap of space in the rear of the bullet to allow the exploding gas to push the bullet’s surface into the rifled grooves of the weapon. This would put a spin on the bullet, making it several times more accurate at greater range than any smoothbore musket. Though the age of the swords and bayonets were not yet over, they were on their way, and the wounds caused by this bullet were horrendous, often requiring an amputation as it shattered the bone underneath the flesh. These rounds and other Civil War accessories are essential for any history or Civil War buff, who ought to immediately recognize them for their significance.
It’s February 17th, 1864. The American Civil War has been raging for three years now, and the Union Navy has put up a stranglehold of a blockade on the Confederacy. The Confederate war effort is collapsing. With the losses at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, it just seems only a matter of time before the Confederacy loses the war. Unless, somehow, the blockade can be broken and supplies from foreign shores can reach the war front. To that end, the U.S.S. Housatonic, sitting at the mouth of Charleston Harbor on that day, was attacked and sank by the C.S.S. Hunley, one of the first successful submarines. The Hunley was not a true submarine in the sense that we understand it today, but was an ancestor. She was operated manually, propelled through the water by seven enlisted men turning a large screw. In essence, she was a manned torpedo, because the way she was supposed to sink enemy ships was with a barb attached to a contact explosive. The attack on the Housatonic was a success, sending her to the bottom in five minutes, but the Hunley didn’t return to base as planned. Though it was a death trap before this fateful mission, it would be an idea that wouldn’t die with her loss, and to this end having the C.S.S. Hunley Civil War Ironclad representation in your library along with other Civil War accessories and swords from that pivotal period is a piece of proud Americana that marks the progress of the engineering of the submarine we know today.
The 19th Century probably had the most pivotal and important developments in firearms in their history. The percussion cap, the minie-ball, the rifled barrels (which were really a 18th Century development), precision machine tooled factories, the paper cartridge, the metal cartridge, and smokeless powder all get a lot deserved acclaim, bringing firearms to a point where swords were no longer necessary on the battlefield. What you often don’t hear about are the flops and mistakes. Sure, you may have heard about the Pepperbox, with Mark Twain saying that the only safe place to be when this was fired was right behind it. What you might not have considered is the US Revolving Barrel Percussion Rifle. At first glance, it seems rather like a great idea. After all, the revolver is a very successful innovation that is still used to this day, particularly with weapons that fire a heavier round that most automatics aren’t designed for. The problem with this western rifle is a little deceptive at first glance, but take a look at where you would have to put your hand to rest the barrel as you took aim. Your hand is right in front of the cartridge cylinder. Percussion cap weapons were still black-powder weapons, and a stray spark on the adjacent cartridges could touch one or all of them off, blowing off your hand. Considering this might make you think twice about owning such a weapon, but they make great collector’s items because they are an interesting reminder of the perils of innovation, that without the mistakes we make we often don’t figure out what works better.
When discussing the legendary Japanese ninja, one must take into account the many problems they had to deal with. Often, ninja clans had very little money to start with, and even if they had plenty of wealth they found that they didn’t need the best weapons available to do their job. Swords were too expensive for the ninja clan’s needs. Stealth was the means to equalize anyone, regardless of their station, their talent, or their personal arsenal. The individual ninja had to carry just what he needed to do his job efficiently and effectively, and sometimes that meant he could only go into a place with maybe one or two ninja weapons. If he had to choose one particular weapon to bring with him on a job, there was only one choice; a knife. Knives are not just weapons, as you know, but effective tools as well. But for a ninja, knives could be used for throwing, making them probably the most useful and ubiquitous tool and weapon in his possession. A set like the 2 Pc. Throwing Knife Set is an example of what he might bring. Small, concealable, and quick to produce when the need arises, these knives are well balanced for throwing, sharp enough for most jobs, and are cheap enough that if lost the ninja can easily replace them. Able to be re-sharpened in the field as needed, these knives would probably be a standard weapon for the ninja that he would never go anywhere without, with other weapons being added like sauce for the goose.