Neat tidbit on Arms....

[RyanBWeddle]

From the OR Vol. 38 Part I p. 146

A report submitted totaling collected arms & accoutrements in May 1864 during the Atlanta campaign. Very interesting to note...

[Iron Scout]

Ryan,

Thanks for posting this. Anyone have an idea on the "siege rifles"? That's a new one on me!

Neill Rose
PLHA

[huntdaw]

I find the entry about cartridge box and plates to be interesting. Makes me wonder how many boxes actually were outfitted with some sort of plate.

[Curt-Heinrich Schmidt]

Hallo Herr Neill!

My guess would be a misreading or "misinterpretation" by whomever read the hand-written version and set it to type-face...

Reading an "L" in the hand-written "Liege" as an "S" to make it "Siege." ;-)

Hallo Herr Michael!

I am not following your line of thought, could you explain?

I read/see cartridge boxes and box (flap) plates, shoulder belts and shoulder plates, and waistbelts and waistplates?

To me, the numbers would seem to imply that more than half of the cartridge boxes were shoulder-belt less suggesting they were worn on the belt.
The numbers are intriguing as to why the numbers of cap pouches and bayonet scabbards are less than the number of waistbelts- possibly suggesting not everyone who had a waistbelt had a cap pouch or bayonet scabbard. (Although there are other possible explanations such as the odd hundred or so difference may reflect battle damage making them not worthy to collect, etc., etc.)
And is the absence of bayonets being listed a significant or note worthy factoid, or an oversight or ommission by the Ordnance people?

Curt-Heinrich Schmidt

[hireddutchcutthroat]

Here is more from the O.R.s Series I Vol 38.

[markj]

Hi Ryan,

Interesting. However this should also be compared with the "Summary Statements of Quarterly Reports of Ordnance and Ordnance Stores...." at the National Archives. This listing (begins 4th Quarter 1862 and broken down by state) provides fairly detailed snapshots of arms and accoutrements within individual regiments over the lengths of their terms of service. Some units were fairly stable and others were pretty "volatile" when it came to arms and accoutrements. Some Indiana regiments raised in 1862 were initially armed with as many as five different types of arms (mostly substandard French or German muskets/rifles) and by 1863 had switched to a mix of Springfields/Enfields.

I believe I posted this file in another thread but am attaching it here for your perusal and comment. This is a sample I drew from the "Summary Statements" for the 84th Indiana, which was a pretty typical unit for the Army of the Cumberland. I also did a similar examination of Emerson Opdycke's 125th Ohio. I think you'll find it quite interesting.

Regards,

Mark Jaeger

[huntdaw]

Hallo Herr Michael!

I am not following your line of thought, could you explain?

I read/see cartridge boxes and box (flap) plates, shoulder belts and shoulder plates, and waistbelts and waistplates?


Curt,

Although I realize we cannot tell the actual numbers, I was just wondering how many of the cartridge boxes actually had box plates on them. The entry leads one to believe that some number of boxes had plates. Since it is considered PEC to leave a plate off a Confederate box and since there are many originals that do not have plates, I was just intriqued by the entry and was more or less thinking out loud.

[Jimmayo]

As much as I hate the use of CS box plates I have to pass this on.

Quite a few years ago I visited the collection of a relic hunter who lived very close to the the Bloody Angle (off the park of course). This guy had started hunting in the 1950s.

In his collection he had more than a few CS box plates found in the vicinity. They were not as beefy as the US plates being about half the weight.

Also in the Norfolk area there were 5 or 6 CS box plates found in an old building near one of the rivers. I never saw these but the information came from a reliable source.

This evidence made me re-think the use of CS box plates but based on other recoveries their use appears to be not that common. They may have even been supplied by only one depot limiting thier use to units that received an issue from that depot.

[Curt-Heinrich Schmidt]

Hallo Herr Michael!

Thanks for the explanation. It is always good to see things from a variety of perspectives and ideas...

Curt-Heinrich Schmidt