The period of the Civil War came at a transitionary time in the history of weaponry. While the perfection of the rifle made almost all other weapons obsolete, and new devices of mass destruction were right around the corner, there remained a reliance on edged weapons during the Civil War, by those in charge if not by those in battle. Many soldiers during the war carried some form of edged weapons, though they were seldom used for their intended purpose.

The edged weapon that saw perhaps the shortest stint of official use was the lance, which was used by several Confederate units early in the war. These lances, whose design had come down ages unchanged, were simply nine foot long poles with sharp triangular edges. In ages past, when hand to hand battle reined, these weapons had been very successful, but by the time of the Civil War, when rifles could kill an enemy from a quarter of a mile away, these weapons were useless, and quickly cast aside in favor of more modern weaponry.

While lances were quickly discarded from service, a similar weapon remained in use for the entire war. This weapon was the bayonet, which was a necessity during the days of the American Revolution, when inaccurate, slow weapons made hand to hand combat a necessary part of battle. The revolution in rifle technology again made this an unneeded weapon, but almost every fully equipped soldier on either side had a bayonet on his rifle. The average bayonet was 18 inches long, although some were as large as two feet, and some much shorter. Most were triangular in cross section, had deep groves running down the side, and were tapered to a sharp end. Though the bayonet was seldom used in combat, inventive soldiers found many uses for these obsolete weapons. For example, a bayonet on the end of a rifle made a great split for roasting over an open fire, and when taken off the rifle, a bayonet could be stuck into the ground to make a quite adequate candle holder.

Even less useful than the bayonet was the sword. This ancient weapon was given to cavalry soldiers, officers, and select infantrymen. Although a huge variety of swords were carried during the war, most were patterned after the standard issues of the United States Army before the war (such as the Model 1840 and 1860). This design included a sharp front edge, a dull back edge, and "blood groves" running down the sides. If one thing was common to swords, it was their lack of use during the Civil War. Officers had little use for them other than to hold them high during battle for soldiers to rally around, or to threaten soldiers in his own ranks. Cavalrymen had a similar disdain for the weapons, often discarding them before battles. Again swords were more often used for cooking meat than cutting human flesh, and in the end only four-tenths of one percent of all injuries (4 out of every thousand) suffered during the war were caused by edged weapons.