Model 1802 Cadets Sword

These swords were issued to Cadet Officers and NCOs between 1802 and 1839. No examples are known.

Before the creation of the United States Military Academy in 1802, cadets served as apprentices to the soldiers. After 1802, the only military orders were West Point cadets. Military cadet swords before 1802 are mentioned in three surviving sources:

On March 30, 1800, cadets were required to use a sword with a cutting and thrusting blade 28 to 32 inches long and a gilded handle. On September 22, 1800, Samuel Hodgdon, Superintendent of Military Movement, wrote to John Harris, Army Storekeeper, that the swords of cadets and non-commissioned officers should be brass-mounted and with a 30-inch cutting and thrusting blade.

In 1801 an order was issued that the swords of cadets should be the same as those of company officers, with a 28-inch cutting and thrusting blade according to the branch of service. Most of the first cadets of the military academy were from the artillery and engineer organizations, and it is therefore assumed that yellow sabers were almost universal. A general order issued on September 4, 1816 stated that cadet swords were to be "cut and pushed, yellow, with a black hilt, on a knapsack..." These orders were repeated in orders of 1820, 1821, and 1825.

The regulations make no further mention of cadet swords until 1839, when it states that they must be of the type used by the salary department, which then carried a gilded sword with a black scabbard.