Sword bayonet

[1] Most infantry would routinely keep bayonets fixed to their inaccurate smooth bore muskets throughout a battle.

Close order ranks and squares presented a hedge of bayonets to the enemy, which was especially useful for deterring cavalry.

However, Mosin-Nagant rifles using cruciform and dagger bayonets were arsenal zeroed with them affixed (or extended) as they affect point-of-impact via barrel harmonics, and in the case of Imperial Russian and Soviet battle doctrine dictated they were always affixed (with few exceptions).

He therefore required a side-arm that could be drawn and used instantly in an emergency so his bayonet had a cutting edge and a grippable hilt.

Most riflemen found it worked better for cutting brush and roasting meat over a fire (See Rifleman Harris, Costello's, Simmons's diaries).

Before the advent of modern medicine after World War I, a soldier struck by a sword bayonet was very unlikely to survive.