About this time it was learned that a tremendous furor existed among the rebels in regard to the use, by the Seventh Pennsylvania and the Fourth United States, of ground or sharpened sabers; in fact, it was the subject of official correspondence between the commanders of the two hostile armies. The rebels insisted that the use of sharpened sabers was barbarous, and contrary to the rules of modern warfare, and threatened instant death to all officers and men captured possessing them.The officers and men of the regiments, however, were but little disturbed by these sanguinary threats, and, having their sabers already ground sharp, protested against giving them up, alleging that they did not, expect to be captured. The matter was finally determined by a general order authorizing their use, and notifying the rebel commanders that any execution of prisoners by them would be met by retaliation in kind.
The origin of the fuss was that some of the boys of the Seventh one day got hold of a grindstone, and as they had the reputation of taking everything they could carry, brought it into camp ; when, after sharpening all the knives, etc., a few conchided that their sabers would be improved by reducing the thick, round edge to a razor-like degree of sharpness. The officers, discovering this, to prevent the sabers from being ruined, took the matter in charge, and had them ground uniformly from the point about two thirds of the distance toward the hilt. Colonel Minty issued an order directing all the sabers to be so ground, and hence the hubbub about the " sharpened sabers."
Capt. Vale served in Tennessee as a company commander in the 7th Pennsylvania Cavalry. He places this affair during the spring of 1863. I've been unable to locate any mention of sharpened blades or Confederate outrage over their use in the Official Records or in biographies of General Forrest. Does anyone have the particulars on this controversy?