150--YEARS AGO -- SOUTH ARMS FOR WAR

A well armed  Confederate.
Pvt. William H. Rockwell,  Co. H. 18th North
Carolina State Troops. (Library of Congress)

[Excerpt from UT Tyler Digital Archives]

DAILY ADVOCATE [BATON ROUGE, LA], November 28, 1860, p. 2, c. 1


Extensive Purchases of War Munitions for the South.—Those Republican editors, preachers and lecturers who think that the indignation of the south is best put down by ridicule, and who, therefore, lavish the resources of their buffoonery upon every reported attempt of a Southern State to arm her citizens for an impending conflict, will find in the following facts more evidence that the South is in earnest, and that the calamities of disunion, which they would laugh away with their ill-timed jests, are actually imminent.

Yesterday there arrived by the steamer City of Hartford, from Hartford, 180 cases of Sharp's patent carbines, containing 10 pieces each, making in all arms for 1,800 men, and 40 cases of conical balls, each containing 1,000 bullets, or 40,000 cartridges in the aggregate. These arms and ammunition were ordered by telegraph from the Governor of Georgia, and will be sent to Savannah by the next steamer. The same factory has also received orders from Alabama for 1,000 stands of the same death-dealing weapons.

Cooper & Pond, of this city, receive from twenty to fifty orders daily from South Carolina, Alabama, and Georgia—and people who suppose that the South is not a paying customer may be astonished to know that their business transactions in this line are strictly on a cash basis. Cash within thirty days is their invariable rule. Most of the orders are for rifles and navy revolvers, though Cooper & Pond supply an immense number of flint-lock muskets. They lately sent twenty gun carriages to Georgia, and have done a brisk business in all kinds of small arms and ammunition with all the principal Southern States.

Another large house in this city has filled orders for about 5,000 stand of muskets of the United States pattern, and has sold large quantities of artillery swords and army pistols. Its orders come from all the Southern States, but mainly from those in which secession is regarded as the only remedy for Southern grievances. A third extensive establishment has supplied an immense number of Colt's revolvers and rifles to Georgia, principally to Columbus. All the wholesale houses and agencies in the city have been hard pressed to supply the orders for every imaginable species of weapon. To the above list may be added Aime's Manufacturing Company, which has furnished Georgia with cannon and with 300 artillery swords, and has done a large miscellaneous business with all the aggrieved States.

Pvt. Andrew Skidmore, Co. E, 17th Virginia Infantry
Mount Vernon Guard.
(Library of Congress)

The Southern States, living until recently in peace and happiness under the roof-tree of a common Union, have neglected the establishment of firearm factories within their own borders. During the past year, Virginia first recognized the necessity of starting a State armory, and appropriated $100,000 for the work. Some commencement has already been made on it, but it is certain that the armory will not be completed within one year, and in the meantime she must depend on the North. Various statements have been circulated about the present armament of Virginia. It is believed that she can, as asserted, bring 25,000 men into the field, but the tremendous batteries of rifled cannon which have been said to belong to her, do not exist. We understand, from good authority, that she has but one rifled cannon. Indeed, in the matter of heavy ordnance, all the Southern States appear to be far behind the North.

South Carolina is the only Southern State which has an armory of her own. It has been in operation some years, and turns out good work, though at a cost not less probably than that of the same class of arms in the North.—Journal of Commerce.