My apologizes TL,... The reason I have said it is cavalry is because I have seen photos of US cavalry wearing this sword so I know they did use them from time to time,... but I should have read my notes more carefully, [ its been many years since they were collected. over 20 yrs ]
The were made for the US Artillery, but I think were open to being used by many different units, not so much for fighting but as a general working tool
This site shows the sword well, in particular the second paragraph, and the second photo [ in blue ],.. that sword is dated 1838, the year they were modified, a year before mine,...mine is in better condition than the one in the photo, including my scabbard
http://www.angelfire.com/wa/swordcollect...page1.html
A major part of survival is invisibility.