![](media/image1.jpeg){width="8.253472222222221in"
height="1.207638888888889in"}

**Arms of the Confederacy**

+------------------------+---------+-----------+----------------------+
| ![](media/imag         | **The   |           | musket in the        |
| e2.jpeg){width="2.0in" | A       |           | proceeding five      |
| height="               | pproach |           | years in the         |
| 2.7083333333333335in"} | of War: |           | national armories at |
|                        | Arms in |           | Springfield Armory   |
| **Pvt. Hockensmith,    | S       |           | and at Harper's      |
| Missouri**             | outhern |           | Ferry Armory had     |
|                        | Hands** |           | allowed older        |
| **Courtesy: private    |         |           | smooth-bored and     |
| collection**           | With    |           | rifled muskets as    |
|                        | Civil   |           | well as rifles to be |
|                        | War     |           | transferred to state |
|                        | be      |           | arsenals. In         |
|                        | ginning |           | 1859-60, Springfield |
|                        | in      |           | Armory alone         |
|                        | April   |           | transferred 104,000  |
|                        | 1861,   |           | such older arms to   |
|                        | the     |           | southern arsenals.   |
|                        | South   |           | These same weapons   |
|                        | found   |           | were among those     |
|                        | itself  |           | rushed into the      |
|                        | unp     |           | fight for the        |
|                        | repared |           | Confederacy.         |
|                        | for a   |           |                      |
|                        | long    |           | Still, most of the   |
|                        | co      |           | weapons available to |
|                        | nflict. |           | the South were       |
|                        | Prewar  |           | heavy, outdated arms |
|                        | open    |           | and civilian arms    |
|                        | -market |           | like those seen in   |
|                        | pur     |           | the photograph to    |
|                        | chases, |           | the left.            |
|                        | c       |           |                      |
|                        | ombined |           |                      |
|                        | with    |           |                      |
|                        | s       |           |                      |
|                        | izeable |           |                      |
|                        | stocks  |           |                      |
|                        | that    |           |                      |
|                        | had     |           |                      |
|                        | accu    |           |                      |
|                        | mulated |           |                      |
|                        | over    |           |                      |
|                        | the     |           |                      |
|                        | years   |           |                      |
|                        | in      |           |                      |
|                        | state   |           |                      |
|                        | and     |           |                      |
|                        | local   |           |                      |
|                        | a       |           |                      |
|                        | rsenals |           |                      |
|                        | under   |           |                      |
|                        | the     |           |                      |
|                        | Militia |           |                      |
|                        | Act of  |           |                      |
|                        | 1808,   |           |                      |
|                        | allowed |           |                      |
|                        | the     |           |                      |
|                        | South   |           |                      |
|                        | to      |           |                      |
|                        | possess |           |                      |
|                        | from    |           |                      |
|                        | 285,000 |           |                      |
|                        | to      |           |                      |
|                        | 300,000 |           |                      |
|                        | m       |           |                      |
|                        | ilitary |           |                      |
|                        | fi      |           |                      |
|                        | rearms. |           |                      |
|                        | This    |           |                      |
|                        | was an  |           |                      |
|                        | ample   |           |                      |
|                        | supply  |           |                      |
|                        | for a   |           |                      |
|                        | short   |           |                      |
|                        | war.    |           |                      |
|                        |         |           |                      |
|                        | Pro     |           |                      |
|                        | duction |           |                      |
|                        | of the  |           |                      |
|                        | modern  |           |                      |
|                        | rifle   |           |                      |
+------------------------+---------+-----------+----------------------+
| ![](me                 |         | **From    |                      |
| dia/image3.jpeg){width |         | the       |                      |
| ="2.638888888888889in" |         | C         |                      |
| height="               |         | ollection |                      |
| 1.5416666666666667in"} |         | of        |                      |
|                        |         | Sp        |                      |
| **Springfield Armory   |         | ringfield |                      |
| NHS archives, US NPS** |         | A         |                      |
|                        |         | rmory\*** |                      |
+------------------------+---------+-----------+----------------------+

Springfield Armory NHS houses the largest collection of Confederate
shoulder arms in the world. Most of these weapons were added to the
collection in the first six months of 1866 from former Confederate
arsenals on orders of the US Ordnance Department. A large proportion of
the cache is made up of former Federal weapons stored in Southern
arsenal prior to the war, battlefield pick-ups, and captures (as are
possibly the 645 US M1861 rifle muskets in the "Organ of Muskets"),
European weapons (principally British and Austrian), older flintlock
muskets adapted to percussion ignition by the Confederate armories, and
Confederate-manufactured shoulder arms. A good collection of Confederate
swords and cutlasses are to be found here, too.

Among those arms on display and in storage are: Clapp & Gates (box lock
type 1 rifle); Richmond Armory (rifle muskets and carbines); Morse
(inside lock musket and breech-loading carbine); Mendenhall, Jones &
Gardner rifle; Virginia Manufactory (1^st^ model musket); Read & Watson
rifle; J.C. Peck rampart gun; Cook & Brother (rifles & carbine);
Robinson "Sharpes" carbines; Bilharz & Hall (carbines & vertical rising
breech carbines); Keen, Walker & Co. carbines; Tarpley carbines;
Tallasee Enfield Pattern carbine; Palmetto Armory muskets; M.A. Baker
rifle; Fayetteville rifles; Calisher & Terry carbines; Enfield (rifle
muskets & carbines); Kerr rifle (London Armoury); and Jefferson Davis'
personal rifle.

**\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_**

> **\*text by Richard Colton, Historian, Springfield Armory National
> Historic Site, US NPS**

**source: Springfield Armory archives, Springfield Armory National
Historic Site, US NPS**

+-------------------------+---------------------+---------------------+
| ![](media/image         | Fayetteville, North | the exception of    |
| 4.jpeg){width="2.125in" | Carolina. The       | the machinery       |
| height                  | Richmond Armory,    | seized by Virginia  |
| ="2.727777777777778in"} | led by Brig. Gen.   | state troops at     |
|                         | Gorgas (pictured    | Harper's Ferry on   |
| **Brig. Gen. Josiah     | here), used rifle   | April 17, 1861,     |
| Gorgas**                | musket-making       | most of the modern  |
|                         | machinery           | arms-making         |
| **Courtesy: Lib. Of     | destruction of that | equipment and most  |
| Congress**              | Federal salvaged    | of the raw          |
|                         | from Harper's Ferry | materials were      |
| **Arming the            | Armory following    | located in the      |
| Confederacy**           | the first few weeks | industrialized      |
|                         | of the war. The     | North.              |
| Southern arsenals had   | Richmond Armory     |                     |
| approximately 175,000   | rifle musket was a  | While the North     |
| modern shoulder arms on | close copy of the   | functioned with a   |
| hand at the beginning   | US rifle musket.    | system of           |
| of the war. Of these,   | Fayetteville Armory | well-defined        |
| about 140,000 were      | received machinery  | federal powers,     |
| smooth-bored, not       | from Harper's Ferry | such was not the    |
| including arms provided | Armory for          | case in the         |
| from private citizens.  | manufacturing a     | Confederacy.        |
| During the war, arms    | copy of the US      | Southern state      |
| were supplied through   | Model 1841 rifle.   | leaders often       |
| manufacture,            | Along with the      | assumed control of  |
| importation, and from   | machinery came many | critical resources. |
| the battlefield.        | skilled former      | In order to         |
|                         | Harper's Ferry      | manufacture rifle   |
| The greater part of     | Armory workmen who  | muskets for the     |
| Confederate rifle       | added their skills  | Confederacy, Gorgas |
| production was in       | to the Confederate  | had to get the      |
| armories at Richmond,   | war effort. By the  | Harper's Ferry      |
| Virginia, and at        | end of the war in   | machinery away from |
|                         | April 1865, an      | the state of        |
|                         | estimated 107,000   | Virginia.           |
|                         | shoulder arms had   |                     |
|                         | been manufactured   | The priority of     |
|                         | throughout the      | Confederate states  |
|                         | Confederacy.        | was the arming of   |
|                         |                     | local militias.     |
|                         | The Confederacy had | With little         |
|                         | precipitated a      | cooperation from    |
|                         | civil war at        | the states, Gorgas  |
|                         |                     | acquired the needed |
|                         | a time when the     | arms. His many      |
|                         | United States       | sources included    |
|                         | reigned as the      | domestic            |
|                         | leading firearms    | manufacture,        |
|                         | producer in the     | European purchases, |
|                         | world, especially   | captured weapons    |
|                         | in the techniques   | from Federal        |
|                         | of mass production  | arsenals, and       |
|                         | and standardization | battlefield         |
|                         | of parts at         | pick-ups. The       |
|                         | Springfield Armory. | Confederacy         |
|                         | With                | imported over       |
|                         |                     | 340,000 European    |
|                         |                     | arms.               |
+-------------------------+---------------------+---------------------+

**\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_**

**Confederate dead and weapons, December, 1862- Marye's Heights,
Fredericksburg, Va (courtesy: Lib. Of Congress)**

![](media/image5.jpeg){width="6.0in" height="2.6458333333333335in"}

**\*recommended reading:**

**Hartzler, Daniel, and James Whisker, [The Northern
Armory]{.underline}, and**

**[The Southern Armory]{.underline}, Old Bedford Village Press, Pa,
1996.**

**Frasca, Albert, Robert Hill, edit., [1909 Catalog: Springfield Armory
Museum Arms & Accoutrements]{.underline},**

**Whitlock Printing Co., Springfield, Ohio, 1995.**