The origin of the word “bayonet” is linked to the town of Bayonne in the French Basque country. There are several different stories that explain the link but in different ways.
One suggestion is that the creation of the bayonet occurred during a peasant revolt in Bayonne in the 1660s, when the peasants, short of munitions, attached hunting knives to the ends of their staffs.
Alternatively, hunters in France and Spain had been jamming knives into the muzzles of their muskets for protection against dangerous game, especially wild pigs that would attack the hunters if they were only injured. Bayonne was a French city that manufactured cutlery and made a type of hunting knife that was favoured for this use.
Plug bayonet
In another post which this supports I look at claims that Jean Martinet, a French officer of the Thirty Years War invented the plug bayonet. A plug bayonet was inserted into the barrel of a musket gun after it was fired. It had obvious disadvantages but it did convert the unloaded gun into a reasonably useful weapon, particularly against cavalry. Later developments of the weapon had it attaching to the outside of the gun so that the gun could still be used to shoot.
The origins of the military plug bayonet pre-dated Martinet by several decades. The first documented military use of the bayonet dates from the 1640s, during the Thirty Years War. In his memoirs, the French nobleman Jacques de Chastenet, Vicomte de Puységur (1600-1682), wrote of sending troops out armed with bayonets instead of swords in 1647.
Bayonets in WWI
The French had a long history and love of the bayonet. In the late 19th century the “Rosalie” was developed. The Rosalie was an “affectionate” name for the Model 1886 Lebel bayonet. It had a cross-shaped blade designed to penetrate thick uniforms. Still in service in WW1, the French called them the “tire-boche”. Tire boche was a pun on the French word for bottle opener—”tire-bouchon” and the French slang for a German—”Boche”.
In WWI British troops would call bayonets “cat-stabbers”, “meat-skewers”, “tin-openers” or “tooth-picks” (equivalent to the German “Zahnstocher”).
Acknowledgement of Claggett Wilson, war artist
The image I have used is an AI version of a painting by US artist, Claggett Wilson (1887-1952) “Rosalie, Rosalie! Rosalie is the Nickname for the French Bayonet”. It is in the public domain. I did find Wilson’s story fascinating and have included it here.
Claggett Wilson served as a first lieutenant in France during World War I, including the battle at Belleau Wood in June 1918, one of the bloodiest engagements faced by American forces. During his service, he was exposed to mustard gas, wounded twice, and at one point spent several days in the muddy “no man’s land” between the US and German trenches before being rescued and sent for medical treatment.
While recovering in the hospital, Wilson created a series of watercolour paintings depicting his experiences. Some originals were lost, but in 1919 he recreated about 40 of them from memory. His works portray soldiers caught in barbed wire like marionettes, vivid artillery explosions, snipers in trees, and scared American troops moving through the forests. The paintings were first exhibited in New York in 1920.
Clagget Wilson’s art is quite moving and very confronting in showing the dead and wounded, compared to the paid war artists who painted a far more heroic version of the war.
Eventually, this picture and 22 others were given to the Smithsonian American Art Museum.