General Joseph E. Johnston, Narrative of Military Operations During the Civil War

[428] to empty Southern arsenals, constructed many years before to receive them, under laws of Congress. These were old-fashioned arms that had been discarded by the Government on account of the recent improvements in small-arms, and the adoption by it of the “rifled musket.” About four hundred thousand of the old discarded arms, and all of the new and improved, were left in the North. About a year later two thousand rifled muskets were offered for distribution to the States under an act of Congress. Only seven hundred of them went to the South, however, because even then there was so little apprehension of war that several Southern States refused or neglected to take their portions. Mr. Floyd's orders, as I have said, were given before secession had been thought of, or war apprehended, by the people of any part of the United States.

The seceding States, in general, made no preparation for war by procuring arms-none of consequence, that is to say. I believe that Georgia procured twenty thousand old-fashioned muskets, and Virginia had forty thousand, made in a State armory more than forty years before. They had, of course, flint locks. Each of the other Southern States, on seceding, claimed, and, when practicable, took possession of, the military property of the United States within its limits. They obtained, in that way, the arms with which they began the war.

To recapitulate: the Confederate States began the war with one hundred and twenty thousand arms of obsolete models, and seven hundred of the recently adopted weapons, “rifled muskets;” and the United States with about four hundred and fifty thousand