We see it all the time in photos and films. Officers in the Civil War could easily be distinguished not only by what they wore, but what they also carried into battle: a revolver and a sword/saber. My question is, did they know how to use the sword issued to them? Did they receive any training on how to use one before they were deployed? Did they know how to use one prior to the war, or was it all just hack and slash when it came to close quarter combat? And not just officers, but swords were also issued to NCOs, stretcher bearers, and drummer boys.

5038114 seeing as how the training for regulars wasn't that great, I'd say probably not. But I could be wrong

5038114 5038128 Scene from Glory showed one officer stabbing a guy that was swinging a torch, but is the movie accurate on that, hard to tell.

5038144 if I was on a civil war battlefield

"A sword and some shitty pistol? No no no, fuck this. Time for a 1842 Springfield."

5038150 should I bring up a 14th video. Springfield doesn't always work against swords in melee

5038156 "piece of crap bayonet. Rather use my sword but screw it. Rather just stab the fucker either way."

5038162 Still, swords came in handy for some officers and cavalry troopers in a charge

5038114
In short: No.

The training manuals of the day did not contain any instructions on how to use the standard officer's sword in any martial or self-defense way. If an officer had gone to West Point they might have had some training in fencing or broadsword as an elective, but most likely not. Most volunteer officers most certainly did not. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain was one of the few, as his father and brothers had all trained with broadswords... using them to cut lumber in the Maine winters.

Here is an archived web page which deals with the issues surrounding the use of swords on the Civil War battlefield. While the use of swords wasn't meant to be as an offensive weapon, they were still indispensable as signs of rank and for issuing orders on a battlefield. Any officer of the rank of lieutenant or above was not in uniform if he did not have one. When it came down to it, the Colt Navy pistol was an officer's last real line of defense... but that doesn't mean that swords were not used. There are plenty of examples of officers cutting down soldiers with their swords when the fight came down to hand to hand, and the sword is an instinctual weapon after all. As Tucker says in Red vs. Blue: " What's to understand about 'swish swish stab'? Its a f*cking sword, dude. It's not a fighter jet."