In Stephen Ambrose’s book on Lewis & Clark, he makes mention of an espontoon that Lewis carried with him on his trek across North America. An espontoon is identified as “a sort of pike, about 6 feet in length, with a wooden shaft and metal blade. It was a medieval weapon still in use as a symbol of authority for infantry officers in the US Army. Aside from being a walking stick and a weapon of last resort, the espontoon had a crosswise attatchment at shoulder height that served as a rifle rest”.
I have never heard of such a thing, and I consider myself fairly well-read in military history. The closest thing, I’m familiar with would be the props used for blunderbuses in the 16th and 17th centuries. Ambrose gives the impression that infantry officers carried these unwieldy 6’ pikes around the same way modern officers do with riding crops. The whole image just does not jibe with my mental picture of an 18th or 19th century infantry officer. They must have been a pain in the ass to carry into combat (along with one’s sword, side arm and perhaps even a musket).
Can anybody direct me to a picture of such a device or better yet to an illustration of an officer sporting one? Were they as common as Ambrose seems to think?
So, to answer your question, they do seem to have been quite common. I am finding lots of references to the Lewis and Clarke expedition too.
Ah ha! Found a picture of one! http://www.walika.com/sr/uniforms/p21.htm
“Drink your coffee! Remember, there are people sleeping in China.”
The pictures are nothing like what I envisioned. I think it was the bit about it being used as a rifle rest that threw me. All in all the thing looks better suited for Swiss mercenaries than American infantry officers.
Pikes and halberds were pretty common right up to the Civil War. One of the local factories in my neighborhood made pikes for John Brown when he attacked Harper’s Ferry. Given what a pain in the bleep it was the manage a musket in terms of reloading time and damp powder, a 6’ length of hardwood with a knife on the end could come in handy in close combat. Not too handy against machineguns, repeating rifles and modern artillery though.
BTW…if you catch the “George Washington” flick playing on A&E this month, you’ll spot an espontoon near the end when the Americans are rounding up the Hessian prisoners. Getting prodded with one of them things musta been pretty persuasive.
