“The sword of the Infantry officer as compared with that of the Cavalry officer is a simple matter. From the beginning of the eighteenth century he carried a straight-bladed weapon based on the town sword which every gentleman of means wore as part of his full dress, the military sword being, of necessity, of stouter proportions then was the case with the civilian sword, which was only used in earnest for duels and private encounters.”
“…Weapons on the Continent, and particularly in the Netherlands, had as early as the 1630’s begun to be replaced by swords with much smaller, neater hilts and shorter blades. When Charles II and his brother and their followers returned from their long exile in Holland and France, they brought the fashion for these ‘town swords’ with them. The English, who still called their military swords by the old medieval term of ‘great swords’, immediately dubbed these dainty weapons ‘smallswords’ and the name has stuck…”
Evolving from the rapier, small-swords would continue to be carried by officers until they took a small split with the introduction of the British Infantry officers 1786 pattern sword. Here we can see the divergence of the military small sword, being slightly more robust and the more delicate court-sword, often worn for dress occasions or by diplomats as decoration.
