[
1]
Southern Historical Society Papers.
Vol. XXXVII. Richmond, Va., January-December. 1909.
Work of the Ordnance Bureau of the war Department of the Confederate States, 1861-5.
By J. W. Mallet, ex-Lieut. Col. of Artillery and Superintendent of Confederate States Ordnance Laboratories.
President Jefferson Davis bluntly stated the truth when he wrote that ‘it soon became evident to all that the
South had gone to war without counting the cost.
Our chief difficulty was the want of arms and munitions of war.’
In the interval between the election and the inauguration of
President Lincoln, when one Southern State after another was withdrawing from the
Union, men's minds were full of rapidly passing political events, and much doubt was felt as to whether there would be a war; certainly but few looked forward to war on so great a scale, or to be waged for so many years, as actually took place.
As soon as it became clear to the authorities of the newly established
Confederate States' government that an armed conflict was inevitable, they must have been alarmed at the terrible lack of material preparation for it at the
South.
In the arsenals of the
United States within Confederate limits there were 120,000 muskets (for the most part altered from flint-lock to percussion), besides some 12,000 or 15,000 rifles, and with some arms belonging to the individual States, it may be set down that about 150,000 serviceable fire-arms for infantry were available.
There were a considerable number of heavy sea-coast guns at the fortified sea ports, and others were seized on board men-of-war at
Norfolk and among the stores of the
Norfolk navy yard.
But there was no serviceable field artillery except a few old iron guns of 1812 and a few more modern pieces belonging
