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*shrug* I've seen too many swords that I would call a heavy rapier show up in historical paintings and woodcuts. A civilian rapier may be a useless battlefield implement, but a late-Ren fast and light (comparatively, of course) cut-and-thrust with protective handguard still counts as a rapier in my book (especially when generalizing broadly on the Internet =P ) and these are the swords I am referring to. Rapiers were around far longer than Ren times, and, to be honest, the level of tech I am really referring to is post Ren or very late Ren. I'm thinking buffcoats, pike, and shot.
Fencing during the Napoleonic era was the swordplay of choice, military and civilian. Cavalry used heavier blades, but that is to be expected. Again, a heavier bladed sword was used than the civilian rapier you are referring to. It is still, in broad sense, a rapier - straight, sharp blade designed for thrusts and slashes, bearing a protective guard for the hand. I mention this era because it is, my personal opinion, the height of martial skill in the art of fencing.
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