J. Cristopher Amberger on Singlestick
'The use of the point was re-introduced and cuts at the legs were allowed (although they were considered foul play by many salles.) Hutton recounts an incident at Henry Angelo's St. James's Street School of Arms in the late 1850s, when a Mr. Rolland squared off against a notorious bully, non-commissioned officer in the Royal Artillery Sergeant T-y, who had unfairly beaten Rolland in a previous encounter by cutting "inside the leg," even though both combatants had agreed on regarding this action as foul play.

The pair engaged; the sergeant led off in his customary violent fashion, but Mr. Rolland played in a manner that had never been seen before. This time he was serious. Usually he would lead off with a frank attack; now he was strangely quiet. He parried the furious blows, and only now and then replied with a riposte. T-y, fancying that this man was afraid of him, redoubled his energy, and gradually tired himself, which was exactly what his opponent intended he should do. At last the supreme moment arrived. Rolland all of a sudden crouched like a tiger, like a tiger sprang forward and with all the force of his spring and the weight of his mighty arm landed a fearful blow exactly on the point of the inside of his adversary's knee. The biter was bit. Sergeant T-y uttered a shriek of agony, and fell fainting on the floor. He was carried to the dressing-room, where they fomented his leg with hot water and did the best they could for him at the moment. He was taken in a cab to the hospital where he remained over a month, and it was three months before he was able to mount a horse again.
The hit didn't improve the Sergeant's salle manners. In a later incident, an opponent's singlestick broke off at the buffalo-hide hilt. T-y took advantage of the situation to land several vicious hits on his unarmed opponent. Seeing himself abused in this unfair and ungentlemanly fashion, his victim used the basket the way many soldiers used their hilts in close combat, namely to land a tremendous punch against the face of T-y that sent him sprawling to the floor. Angelo, who had been watching the encounter, added a kick for good measure and told T-y to pack and never show his face again at his school.'