Four of the slave-holding States thus responding to the President's call, to wit: Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina, soon joined the Confederate States; Maryland, Missouri, Kentucky, and Delaware remained in the Union, and, later, filled their quotas under the several calls for troops for the United States service, though from each many also enlisted in the Confederate Army.
The Union volunteers were either hastened, unprepared by complete organization or drill, to Washington, D. C., to stand in its defence against an anticipated attack from Beauregard's already large organized army, or they were assembled in drill camps, selected for convenience of concentration and dispersion, to the scenes of campaigns soon to be entered upon.
Arms in the North were neither of good quality nor abundant. Some were hastily bought abroad—Enfield rifles from England, Austrian rifles from Austria; each country furnishing its poorest in point of manufacture. But there were soon in operation establishments in the North where the best of guns then known in warfare were made. The old flint-lock musket had theretofore been superseded by the percussion-lock musket, but some of the guns supplied to the troops were old, and altered from the flint-lock. These muskets were muzzle-loaders, smooth bores, firing only buck and ball cartridges—.69 calibre. They were in the process of supersession by the .58 calibre rifle for infantry, or the rifle-carbine for cavalry, generally of a smaller calibre. The English Enfield rifle was of .58 calibre, and the Springfield rifle, which soon came into common use, was of like calibre. The Austrian rifle of .54 calibre proved to be of poor construction, and was generally condemned.(26) A rifle for infantry of .58 calibre was adopted, manufactured and used in the Confederacy. The steel rifled cannon for field artillery also came to take the place, in general, of the smooth-bore brass gun, though many kinds of cannon of various calibres and construction were in use in both armies throughout the war.
The general desire of new volunteers was to be possessed of an abundance of arms, such as guns, pistols, and knives. The two latter weapons were even worse than useless for the infantry soldier —mere incumbrances. An officer even had little use for a pistol; only sometimes in a melée. The cavalry resorted, under some officers, to the pistol instead of the sword. In the South, at the opening of the wr, shot-guns and squirrel rifles were gathered together for arms, and long files were forged in large quantities by common blacksmiths into knives or a sort of cutlass (or macheté) for use in battle.(27) These were never used by regularly-organized troops. Guerillas, acting in independent, small bands, were, however, often armed with such unusual weapons. The North had no such soldiers. The South had many bands of them, the leaders of which gained much notoriety, but they contributed little towards general results. Guerillas were, at best, irregular soldiers, who in general masqueraded as peaceful citizens, only taking up arms to make raids and to attack small, exposed parties, trains, etc. This sort of warfare simply tended to irritate the North and intensify hatred for the time.
Not in the matter of arms alone was there much to learn by experience. McClellan and others had visited the armies of Europe and made reports thereon; Halleck had written on the Art of War; General Scott and others had practical experience in active campaigns, but nobody seemed to know what supplies an army required to render it most effective on the march or in battle.
When the volunteers first took the field the transportation trains occupied on the march more than four times the space covered by the troops. Large details had, as a consequence, to be made to manage the trains and drive the teams; large detachments, under officers, to go with them as guards. To supply forage for the immense number of horses and mules was not only a great tax upon the roads but a needless expense to the government. Excessive provision of tents for headquarters and officers as well as the soldiers was also made. Officers as well as private soldiers carried too much worse than useless personal clothing, including boots (wholly worthless to a footman) and other baggage; each officer as a rule had one or more trunks and a mess-chest, with other supplies. McClellan, in July, 1861, had about fifteen four- horse or six-mule teams to carry the personal outfit of the General and his staff; brigade headquarters (there were no corps or divisions) had only a proportionately smaller number of teams; and for the field and staff of a regimental headquarters not less than six such teams were required, including one each for the adjutant and the regimental quartermaster and commissary; and the surgeon of the regiment and his assistants required two more.
Each company was assigned one team. A single regiment—ten companies —would seldom have less than eighteen large teams to enable it to move from its camp. Something was, however, due to the care of new and unseasoned troops, but in the light of future experience, the extreme folly of thus trying to make war seems ridiculous. A great change, however, occurred during the later years of the war. When I was on active campaigns with a brigade of seven regiments, one team was allowed for brigade headquarters, and one for each regiment. In this arrangement each soldier carried his own half- ten (dog-tent) rolled on his knapsack, and the quartermaster, commissary, medical and ordnance supplies were carried in general trains. This applied to all the armies of the Union. The Confederates had even less transportation with moving troops.
But we must not tarry longer with these details. Henceforth we shall briefly try to tell the story of such of the campaigns, events, and scenes of the conflict as in the ensuing four years of war came under our observation or were connected with movements in which we participated, interweaving some personal history.
( 1) His resignation was accepted December 29, 1860. Howell Cobb, of Georgia, Buchanan's Secretary of the Treasury, resigned December 8, 1860, and was, on February 4, 1861, chosen the presiding officer of the first Confederate Congress. He left the United States Treasury empty. Jacob Thompson of Mississippi, Buchanan's Secretary of the Interior, resigned January 8, 1861. He had corresponded with secessionists South, and while yet in the Cabinet had been appointed a commissioner by his State to urge North Carolina to secede. He became an aid to Beauregard, but attained no military distinction. In 1864 he went to Canada, and there promoted a plan to release prisoners at Camp Douglas, Chicago, and to seize the city, and was charged with instigating plots to burn New York and other Northern cities.
( 2) Am. Cyclopedia, 1861 (Appleton), pp. 430, 431.