Asking for my mother who is writing a novel inspired by a collection of letters she found, written by her husband’s ancestors around the time of the Civil War. One of the central figures is a woman who was left to take care of the family farm in western North Carolina while her husband and his brothers enlisted with the Confederate Army.
What she’s trying to find out is what, if any, kind of firearm might this woman have had? My understanding is that it was common for Confederate soldiers to supply their own weapons, and at least in the early days of the war, they often went into battle with old flintlocks. Is this correct? There’s plenty on information online about all the cool then-new weapons that were implemented in the Civil War, but what would a poor soldier from rural Appalachia have realistically been armed with?
And again more to the point, does that mean that families would have been left without a way to hunt or defend the homestead? What would be the most believable scenario for this woman left alone to take care of a farm and a bunch of young ‘uns?
Oh, in case it makes a difference, the brothers enlisted as soon as war was declared, but her husband didn’t join until a year later.
Any and all info y’all could give me regarding this question would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
It is true that the Confederacy begged, bought, made or stole whatever arms it could for the War. There would be factories set up converting old flintlock muskets to percussion, even lining, reboring and rifling them for minie bullets.. However, though some soldiers might bring their own pistols or , for cavalrymen, their own shotguns and pistols ( cavalrymen liked revolvers) there would be little military use for the typical small-bore hunting rifle circa 1830-1860 that you would find in the southern Highlands. It could not take a bayonet, for one thing, but it was also simply unfitted for combat, having a heavy barrel ( a after 1845, a rather short one) and a rather light, fragile stock. For the same reasons, shotguns also made bad infantry weapons. It's far more likely that someone who enlisted in the regular army would be issued a musket and bayonet. You might, however, look into specific North Carolina units and see if any research has been done on how they were actually armed.
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