I NEED a LEATHERNECK kilt

[jfellrath]

It was called a stock. It was not for protection so much as it was for keeping a fellows chin up. Which it did and it was extremely irritating. The British used them for years and it was a very much despised piece of equipment

I recently read the first of the Sharpe series (Sharpe's Tiger, the first one chronologically, if not by date of publishing) and when Sharpe was sent off on a secret mission with an officer (at the time he was a buck private) he mentioned that the first thing a deserter would do would be to lose his stock since it was just so despised.

[macwilkin]

The US Army used the stock from the Revolution to the Mexican War in the late 1840's. I believe it was still around in the regs during the Civil War, but had fallen out of use by then.

T.