Plug Bayonet

The bayonet was invented when an unknown soldier found his dagger handle fitted tightly into the muzzle of his gun to make a substitute for a pike. This happened in Spain around 1580. By the 1640s bayonets were introduced to France. Until the general adoption of bayonets a footsoldier would be either a specialist musketeer or pikeman. Musketeers were most vulnerable when reloading their single-shot muskets while the enemy charged ever closer. Pikemen would step forward and form a hedge of steel for protection. Without this, a musketeer could only reverse his empty weapon and use it as a club. Now he could fit the bayonet into his firearm and become his own pikeman.

The obvious disadvantage of plug bayonets was, of course, that they plugged the barrel, preventing reloading. So soldiers fitted their bayonets at the last moment. In 1689 at Killiecrankie, Scotland, government troops left this too late and were swept away by Jacobite highlanders charging downhill with their claymore swords. By early in the next century socket bayonets had been devised which fixed to one side of the muzzle while still allowing the gun to be reloaded and fired again.