Richmond daily Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1842-1861, 1859-12-08
lroR THE WIG.
THE STATE ARMS.

To The Members Of the General .lsseniblg:
The first and most important duty, which will encaro
your aehti9n, Is 10 provide the means of protecting
he lives and property of the people OF Virginia from
the irruptions of Northern ruans ts NOT neceSsory
here to dwell upon the lesson which the Harper Ferry
raid has written in characters of blood on our omes,;
annals The military spirit of the CommonweaI,h -
fully aroused, and volunteer companies are forn,in l.;
every county town and village. The citizens through
out her borders, are calling upon the State for arms
and the question is, have n supply of such weanon
OF defence adequate for the emergency Fyer-
military man IN the state and in indeed every civilian
at all conyersant with the subject will be conSr,nsd
to give negative answer to this question The I,te
Improvements IN all descriptions OF firearms for war
like purposes have wrought a great reyolution In ~.
ART oil war virginia II almost wholly unprovided with
weapons of the most improved order The arms de-
posted at Richmond and Lexington and those which
nave been supplied 10 the various volunteer corns are
IN great measure, comparatively worthless The
legislature then, should take immediate stems IN re-
medy TINS defect m our system of defence The prin
cipal OBJECT OF this communication to bring TO you
notice the recommendation, which concludes an ,bIa
and learned article on Modern TacticS,, IN ,hs
Sogthfrn Literary Messenger for January 1858. Tho
have anticipated this very conjuncture of affairs He
says: 1--WE have, in Virginia, about sixty thousard
u6e and Thes deposited in nearly equal proportions
at Richmond and Lexington, without counting The
arms now IN the hands of volunteer corps of the State
IL the citizens Of Virginia depend upon those arms 10
repe foreign foe, yindcates their own rigbts in
case ot necessity they relying upon broken rod
Such as they are, these arms are worth iust tbeir
weight as old iron; they furnished with The ola
obsolete
no longer made or imported. 1t would be impoSsibl,
TO get Hints enough 10 supply them for a whole cam
pagn, for flint IL out after twenty shot. Rut
II this objection removed. il would De Sheer mad
ness TO oppose such arms to the Minnie rifle A very
simple Transformation can, however, change the,e use
less arms into very efficient weapons: lst The aint
lock must be changed to percussion; "a The barrels
must be ground according to the mode adopted in tba
United States Armories; 3D. bruch sight and hausa
must be adapted TO the barrel; then number of Nin
ME ball mouds must be made and ammunition pr0
pared for future If, at the same time sahrs
ayonets could be substituted for the old hayonets
would be advantage; but this is not indispensabie
The transformation indicated is going on with re-
gard TO the United States arms; il was made several
years ago In the French service and II Is prob,bIy
completed in the English service. The transformed
weapon IS the Minnie muske inferior to some extent
TO the Minnie rifle, but, nevertheless an exeellent
weapon with an effective range of nine hundred or one
thousand yards 1t is probable that by using the fac
ties of the Richmond Armory and establishing tempo
rary workshop at the Virginia Military Institute he
arms at those two places be transformed M an ex
penSe OF Sl.5O apiece, even less"
Your attention Is respectfully invoked 10 the above
suggestion which IS worth your prompt and earnest
consideration. The necessity for good seryiceabie
weapons imperative, and there certainly no eh.ane
more expeditions method of obtaining the reosi,
supply of such arms than that which pointed out by
Major Colston. - -
WESTMOREIAND