Nor should it be forgotten that almost every man of any position owned a pair of Colt’s repeaters, many of them of the army and navy size.  These were eagerly bought up by the Confederate authorities, who paid from thirty to sixty dollars apiece for them.  They were for the cavalry service.  Add to these facts, that every country blacksmith made cutlasses from old files, &c.; most of them clumsy but serviceable weapons in a close encounter.  Artillery and cavalry sabers were manufactured at New Orleans, Memphis, and Nashville, and probably at other places.

In short, at the beginning of the year 1862, there was rather a surfeit than any scarcity of arms all over the South.  Indeed, the energies of the entire people were employed in the production of every description of small-arms, and the enthusiasm displayed rivals the example of ancient Carthage, in her last fruitless struggle against the Romans.  And this enthusiasm pervades all classes.  I doubt not, if the bow was considered a weapon of war now, the fair maidens of the South would gladly contribute their flowing tresses for bowstrings, if necessary, as did the women of Carthage.  Their zeal and self-denial are seen in the fact that the ladies have given vast amounts of jewelry to be sold to build gunboats, fortifications, &c.; the women of Alabama actually contributing $200,000, as estimated, for the construction of a gunboat to protect the Alabama river.  Does the reader ask, Why such sacrifice?  THEY ARE IN EARNEST. They think they are fighting for property, home, and life.

Yet after all that has been said, the largest supply of small-arms comes from England and France.  I have repeatedly heard it said that 300,000 stand of arms have been received from abroad;—­that 65,000 came in one load by the Bermuda.

The imported guns are principally Enfield, Minie, and Belgian rifles.  The first Enfields received had been used somewhat, probably in the Crimean and Indian wars.  The crown marks on the first importations, were stamped out with the initials of those who had bought them from the government; the later arrivals, exhibit the crown marks uneffaced.  I have seen Enfield rifles of the manufacture of 1861 and 1862, with the stamp of the “Tower” on the lock-plate!  Officers, in opening and examining cases of these, would nod significantly to each other, as much as to say, “See the proof of England’s neutrality!” The French and Belgian rifles, among the best arms ever made, are mostly of recent manufacture, and elegantly finished.  Yes, the South has arms in abundance, and good ones; and they know how to use them, and they are resolved to do it.