Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 03.djvu/159

Rh removed to arsenals in the South, which were comparatively empty, and at the same time there were removed to the same arsenals 10,000 old percussion rifles. These constituted the 115,000 muskets which the author says "secured a complete armament for the Confederate armies of superior quality," and left the Federal Government "in need of everything at the moment when all had to be created at once," though there was still about 400,000 of the same kind of arms left in Northern arsenals. It also appears that in 1860, under the law for arming the militia, 8,423 muskets and 1,728 long-range rifles were distributed among the States, and the Southern States received of the muskets 2,091, and of the rifles 758, making 2,849 in the aggregate, though of the States which were among the first to secede several received none of either kind of arms. Mr. Stanton, in his report, says: "There are a good deal of rumors, and speculations, and misapprehensions, as to the true state of facts in regard to this matter."

It does not appear that any cannon were sent South by Governor Floyd, but it appears that about the 20th of December, 1860, he gave orders for the guns necessary for the armament of the forts on Ship Island and at Galveston to be sent to these forts. The orders were, however, countermanded by his successor before they were carried into effect or a single gun had been sent.

The author has very probably adopted as true some statements of General Scott's, made after he had become a dotard, though it is not believed that even he went to the extent of asserting that the United States had not "a musket, a coat, or a pair of shoes for the improvised defenders."

If the United States did not have arms to issue to the volunteers, and the States had to furnish them, where did the latter get them from? None of the States had any manufactory of arms, and if they had to buy them, was their credit any better than that of the Federal Government? The statement of the author in regard to the inability of the Federal Government to furnish a musket to its defenders, is calculated to provoke a smile even from General Sherman, who has commended the book for "its spirit of fairness and candor."

That the Federal army, at the first battle of Manassas, was far better armed and equipped than the Confederate army which it encountered, is a proposition that does not admit of dispute. The former army had a portion of its troops armed with minnie muskets and long-range rifles, while its artillery was more numerous