This style of British infantry sword was introduced by the General Order of 1796, replacing the previous pattern of 1786. It was used throughout the Napoleonic period and was issued to line infantry officers in the British Army between 1796 until 1822 when it was replaced by the 'gothic' hilted design sword of that year.

It was similar to it's predecessor in that it had a Spadroon type blade, i.e. one that was straight; flat-backed; single edged and with a single fuller on each side. The hilt had gilt covered brass or bronze twin shell guard similar to the civilian 'smallswords' of the Georgian period and with later examples one side of the shell guard hinged, to be folded away when the sword was worn and not in use.
 
The single-edged blade measures 33 inches and has a single fuller running for virtually the entire length. Along three-quarters of the blades length, is incised hatching, this would have been for the original heat blueing and Mercury/Gold gilding, which is now gone.

The hilt consists of a bronze, double shell guard (the inner shell half is hinged and can be folded down so the protect the uniform from being worn away by the guard). The shell halves retain a small amount of the original gold gilt thereon and have scroll decoration.

The carved, ribbed, wooden grip is missing it's silver foil covering (almost always the case with such old swords) and has a slight crack to the wood, which is stable, causing no problem. The blade is a good tight fit to the hilt, with no movement between blade and hilt.

The grip has a bronze ferrule at either end, and a Neo-classical, style Urn shaped pommel with gadrooned decoration and pronounced Capstan.