Existing comment:
Arms Procurement:
The initial response of each seceding state to the threat of war was to seize any federal arsenal on its soil. By 27 January 1861, every arsenal in the South had been taken except the ones in Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee, which had not yet seceded. All of the seized weapons were northern made. Arms could also be purchased from northern manufacturers until 9 April 1861. When war broke out a few days later, captured federal weapons, such as those taken after the Union rout at First Manassas, became a major source of supply. Nonetheless, capture was an undependable source and the weapons seized from arsenals were insufficient, so attention turned to Europe, where many southerners thought they could dictate their demand for weapons because of the importance of cotton to the world economy.
1. Procurement:
Capture:
There was little resistance when forces of the seceded states seized the federal arsenals in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Fayetteville, North Carolina; Charleston, South Carolina; Augusta, Georgia; Mount Vernon, Alabama; and Little Rock, Arkansas. The surprisingly easy capture of the arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, was especially important because it yielded machinery that enabled existing southern facilities to manufacture small arms. Some of this machinery went to the Virginia Manufactory of Arms of Virginia State Armory in Richmond, while the remainder was shipped to Fayetteville, North Carolina.
Nonetheless, many of the weapons the Confederates seized were antiquated. In the long run, the capture of weapons from Union armies in the field proved to be equally important as a source of weapons for the Confederate armies. |