Relegated to a cosmetic role on the battlefield as firearms became the death dealer swords still had a place in the worlds military

Fencing was seen as martial art and was taught to most professional officers in western countries by the dawn of the 18th century. By this time American and European ground troops stopped carrying swords into battle and by the time of the Seven years war most swords were used simply as a reference point by officers to focus their troop's attention on him or a distant object in a noisy smoky battlefield. American land and naval officers carried swords throughout the 19th century. Sailors were armed with boarding cutlasses when the need arose, but that need faded along with sail power in the 19th century although many navies carried these cutlasses tucked away in their ships lockers well into world war one.

The Napoleonic wars saw constant use of the saber with columns of thousands of magnificent cavalrymen slashing at squares of infantry with little effect. The six hundred men of the British light brigade barely caused a change in the mood in the Russian lines with their sabers in 1854 while taking catastrophic casualties themselves. During the US Civil war the very successful confederate cavalry usually carried no sabers while the Union horse soldiers rarely if ever had a chance to use theirs. A Civil War soldier had a better chance of being hit by a minie bullet than he would being cut by the bayonet or the sword. In fact, wounds from these "cutting" weapons were extremely rare accounting for only 2% or so of the total wounds treated by surgeons. In 1876 Gen. George Custer ordered the 7th Calvary troopers to leave their sabers at base before they rode to their deaths at Little Big Horn. Sword use in world war one and two, by Russian Cossacks, German Uhlans, British lancers and French cuirassiers were equally disappointing and even foolhardy. The first casualty inflicted by the British army in Europe during WWI occurred when Captain Charles Hornby of the 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards killed a German uhlan with his sabre. He did so when his troop charged some German cavalry near Casteau on the morning of August 22 1914. The cavalry's use of the sword became a memory once vehicles replaced horses, although records do exist of swords being used in combat by both axis and allied cavalry on the eastern front in world war two as well as by Japanese officers in the pacific.

Today, all use of the blade is ceremonial, and no member of the armed forces of any country is believed to receive combat training with the weapon. Swords even of a parade variety are not even generally issued anymore. On ceremonial occasions, most officers actually must scramble to borrow an appropriate blade from military academy graduates or from others whose frequent ceremonial duty has made it more practical to own one. Enlisted grades on constant ceremonial duty are issued sabers while those less frequently called on get their swords from depots. In the US Navy swords were even banned from use with ceremonial uniforms from 1951-1954 but were re-instated. Only the United States Marine Corps requires all commissioned and noncommissioned officers to own their own blades.

After some four thousand years of service in every battlefield in every corner of the earth the military sword's most frequent use today is to cut wedding cake.