Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 12.djvu/216

202 that the Southern armies were glad to throw them down at Bull run and elsewhere in order to pick up the better guns which their enemies left on the battlefields. The arms referred to were old percussion muskets, percussion rifles and altered muskets—all old patterns—which Congress gave willingly to any State that would take them. They had been deposited in the Charleston, North Carolina, Augusta, Mount Vernon and Baton Rouge arsenals, and after secession went into possession of the various States. Such of them as could be used were placed temporarily in the hands of troops.

As rapidly as possible the Confederate government made military preparations to meet the invasion of its territory that would probably take place. The seceded States turned over the forts and arsenals within their boundaries to the Confederate government, and each State began with considerable vigor to organize and equip a military force. The Confederate government attempted in the beginning to organize a small army of about 11,000 regulars, infantry, artillery, cavalry, and an engineer corps. Congress authorized the President to call for a volunteer force of 100,000 men, and appropriated the money for its support. But the insignificant numbers put into the field before the first of May showed not only the difficulty of rapidly organizing and equipping a great military force, but also the effect of the uncertainty prevailing at the South as to the purpose of the Federal government. In illustration of the character of the military preparations of these first days of the Confederacy, it may be noted that General Bragg reported his force at Pensacola in March at 1,116, and accompanied his report with an appeal which elicited a promise of 5,000 more. Beauregard was then in command of 2,000 at Charleston, and other important stations were manned in the same proportion. These, however, do not comprise the entire military organized in the South, for each State had already called and accepted many companies which