What weapons did the confederate army use?

Answer 1

At the start of the war they used anything they could get. Companies of 100 men were formed in every county in the south, and proceeded to the biggest town in the area until ten companies were collected, making a regiment. Many brought their old hunting rifle or shotgun from home. Regiments oftentimes traveled after formation to the state capital to be issued uniforms and weapons. These might be anything that could mount a bayonet, which was what made a military rifle. One type available in quantity was the old US Model 1812 Musket, sometimes converted from a flintlock to percussion cap lock. These were not the current US Army issue but numbers of them remained in armories. Sometimes, in addition to having the lock changed to percussion caps, the barrel might have had rifling grooves cut into it. As originally made they were smoothbore flintlocks, .75 caliber and fired a one ounce ball. To add destructive force to his massive but very inaccurate projectile, sometimes the cartridges for the Model 1812 included the huge ball and three large buckshot in front of that, making an effect something like a shotgun when fired - which was just as well since aiming the thing was usually futile. One of my ancestors was in a regiment where one company got the 1841 Mississippi rifle, an excellent weapon in .44 caliber, but the other nine companies got the old smoothbore flintlocks. It was the same throughout the Confederate field armies, creating a nightmare for supply and ordnance officers, with the multiplicity of weapons requiring ammunition in different calibers. The Confederacy had agents scouring Europe in 1861, buying any military weapons surplus they could get, from Belgium, Austria, all over. A soldier was supposed to get "a stand of arms", which was a rifle, a bayonet to fit it, and a pouch to hold his percussion caps, and possibly a larger pouch to hold his cartridges. The cartridges were powder and projectile rolled up in paper. All Confederate weapons were muzzle loaders. The soldier bit off the powder end of the cartridge, poured the powder down the barrel, used the paper for wadding between the powder and the bullet, and rammed it down with the ramrod mounted below the barrel of his weapon. Then a percussion cap on the nipple, and it was ready to fire.

But the preferred weapon was the Model 1856 Enfield, of English design and manufacture, in .577 caliber. By 1863 most Rebels had an Enfield, which was an excellent, accurate rifle-musket. Supplies of them were were imported, and a few small armories were set up in the south that actually manufactured Enfields. Few examples of these native-made Enfields survive today, and they're worth a fortune. It used percussion caps, and had a rifled barrel, giving great range and accuracy. The usual ammunition was the minie ball. In a pinch captured Yankee ammunition could be used, because the Yankees used the Springfield, in .58 caliber. So the Yankee bullets were .003 inches - three one-thousandths of an inch bigger, but they could usually be rammed home and fired. At busy times of heavy firing, as in a big battle, the black powder used in the Civil War would build up residue after each firing on the inside of the barrel, and this added to the difficulty of getting the microscopically larger Yankee bullets down the barrel.

Answer 2

They used pistols