Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 03.djvu/160

150 and of much better quality than ours. The Confederate troops at that battle were armed almost entirely with smooth-bore muskets, most of which had been altered to percussion from flint locks, though, perhaps, there were a few rifles that had been rescued from the flames at Harper's Ferry. All of the artillery used there by us, except a few guns brought by the Washington Artillery from New Orleans, was furnished by Virginia, and consisted mainly of the old-fashioned iron smooth-bore six-pounders, for which caissons had to be improvised by using the wheels and beds of ordinary wagons. The greater portion, if not all of the percussion caps used by us in the battle, had been manufactured with a machine procured and put in operation in Richmond, by the Chief of Ordnance of Virginia, after the secession of that State. The duty had been devolved on me to organize and arm the Virginia troops mustered into the service at Lynchburg, and I there organized, armed and sent to Manassas two regiments of infantry and one of cavalry, besides several companies of infantry that were sent to other regiments. The infantry was armed with muskets, without cartridge boxes, bayonet scabbards or belts, and the cavalry was armed partly with double-barrel shot guns, collected from the surrounding country, and partly with old flint-lock horseman pistols, which were altered to percussion under my orders, while the only sabres that could be procured for the men consisted of a variety of old patterns of that weapon collected from some companies belonging to former militia organizations. Upon application to the Confederate Ordnance Department at Richmond, I found that it had neither cartridge-boxes, &c., nor cavalry arms to furnish to me. Cartridge-boxes, belts and bayonet scabbards were not issued to my own regiment until a day or two before the engagement at Blackburn's ford, on the 18th of July, and they were issued to a part of the regiment on the morning of that day, having been manufactured subsequent to the arrival of the regiment at Manassas.

If about such facts as those referred to in the extracts given and commented on—to wit: the character of the appointments made by Mr. Davis to the two regiments of cavalry in 1855, the purpose of the employment of the troops on the Western frontier in 1860, the sending of arms to the South, and the relative state of preparation of the two governments for the war—the author is so much at fault, when the evidence to disprove all his statements was easily attainable, how can we expect him to arrive at correct conclusions