drill-weapons

Updated: May 13, 2025

The ponderous pilum, and the heavy, straight sword of the infantry were exchanged in the barrack-yard for drill-weapons of twice their weight; and so perfectly were the detail and regularity of actual service carried out in their daily discipline, that, as an ancient writer has remarked, their sham-fights and reviews differed only in bloodshed from real battles.

Various - The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 03, No. 19, May, 1859