Bayonet to Barrage: Weaponry on the Victorian Battlefield

Explores how Victorian-era advances in weaponry transformed battle tactics and soldiers’ experiences from bayonets to machine guns.

How did technical advances in weaponry alter the battlefield during the reign of Queen Victoria? In 1845, in the first Anglo-Sikh War, the outcome was decided by the bayonet; just over fifty years later, in the second Boer War, the combatants were many miles apart. How did this transformation come about, and what impact did it have on the experience of the soldi...