Ordnance Status in Virginia in 1861

On the day Virginia signed the Ordinance of Secession, Adjutant General Richardson reported to Governor Letcher on the condition of the state forces. Seven troops of cavalry had been formed, armed with sabers and cavalry percussion pistols, 350 men in all. One hundred men, two troops, had sabers and cavalry musketoons. Thirty-six troops, 1,800 men, had sabers and revolvers, almost certainly the Colt Navy pattern of 1851, while 22 troops, 1,100 men, had sabers only; and 29 troops had been formed, 1,450, which had no arms at all. The artillery was in an equally irregular state so far as equipment went. Twelve companies of 600 men were armed with 6-pounder field guns with carriages and implements complete, but only 11 companies had artillery swords. One company, 50 men, had 6-pounders, swords, and sappers and miners’ musketoons. One company, armed with 6-pounders, had artillery musketoons, while one was a full battery of six 12-pound howitzers, the men equipped with light artillery sabers. Seven infantry companies had been formed, armed with rifled muskets, 440 men. Eighty-one companies had percussion rifles, 1,400 men. Twentysix companies, comprising 1,300 men, had flint muskets, while five companies were without arms; in all, 6,040 light infantry. Forty-two companies of riflemen were armed, four with long-range rifles of the U. S. Harpers Ferry Ml859 pattern; 28 companies of 1,400 men had percussion rifles, and ten companies, 500 men, carried flint lock rifles of the Virginia Manufactory pattern, presumably. In addition, 76 companies had been formed awaiting arms, a total of 6,030 riflemen.

Before Bull Run or First Manassas, the Army of Northern Virginia was in bad shape for ammunition, being limited to four rounds per man, for want of percussion caps. Captain Louis Zimmer, sent by Commodore Maury to buy 1,00.0,000 caps, drew $10,000 gold from a Baltimore bank and belted it on. Then he travelled to New York and bought the caps at “a store on Liberty Street.”
The caps were seized an hour later by the authorities, but were finally cleared to Zimmer’s friend in Philadelphia to whom they had been consigned. At Philadelphia they were received by the friend, “in care of the Mayor,” but were finally turned over to the Southern sympathizer. Then they were packed in several trunks and by various means smuggled across the Potomac past Yankee guards and gunboats. In all, 800,000 of the caps were delivered, with a trunk containing 200,000 being lost when a Yankee gunboat took after the rowboat ferrying the stuff over the Potomac, and the rowboat sailors dumped the trunk overboard. But the 800,000 caps were distributed to the Army of Northern Virginia and materially affected their successes in their first engagement.