Most commonly a cavalry weapon, the sabre was derived from a Hungarian cavalry sword introduced from the Orient in the 18th century; also a light fencing weapon developed in Italy in the 19th century for duelling.
Whilst the initial request for auxiliaries had called for "8,000 irregulars... organised in companies of 100" and specified that they should be equipped as mounted infantry, the Yeomanry had always been trained and equipped as shock cavalry, with sabres, carbines and lances.
On 12 July, the sabre charge of the cavalry regiment of Charles-Eugène de Lorraine, prince de Lambesc, on a crowd gathered at the Tuileries gardens, sparked the Storming of the Bastille two days later.
Cavalry charged into the crowd with sabres drawn, and in the ensuing confusion, 15 people were killed and 400 700 were injured.
He accepted to take the helm of the Guard cavalry, with a complement of 5,000 sabres, and including Guyot's Grenadiers-à-cheval, Letort's Dragons, Lefebvre-Desnouettes Chasseurs-à-cheval and Édouard Colbert's Chevau-légers lanciers.
What other travel writer can claim to have ridden in a cavalry charge across a castle drawbridge with sabres drawn, as he did during a Balkan rebellion?
As the cavalry of the Manchester and Cheshire Yeomanry sheathed their sabres and wiped down their sweating horses, St Peter's Fields echoed to the groans of the near 700 wounded and dying.
The last of the modern fencing weapons appeared in the late 18th century, when the Hungarians introduced a curved sabre (adapted from the Eastern scimitar) for the use of their cavalry.
On horseback, they're closer to the slashing sabre style: that's no surprise, as the sabre in fencing grew out of cavalry fighting.
