How were the federal arsenals seized?

[maillemaker]

After searching, I was reading this thread:

http://www.authentic-campaigner.com/forum/showthread.php?30734-January-9-1861-First-Shot-of-the-Civil-War&highlight=seize+federal+arsenal

I was wondering about how the federal arsenals were actually seized. We hear often that the Confederates moved quickly to seize Union state arsenals, but I wonder about the details of how it was done. Did the Union garrisons just abandon them in advance of them being taken? Did armed Confederates show up and demand the handing over of the facilities? Were there gunfights over them? Who showed up from the Confederates to do the seizing? Milita? Common citizens? What sorts of weapons did they show up with to seize the facilities?

Steve

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: How were the federal arsenals seized?

Check out Series I, Volume 1 of "The War of the Rebellion" for correspondence on the subject. Often there was no garrison, only an ordnance sergeant or a military storekeeper. State militia would show up, demand its surrender, and, in some cases, give receipts for the stores on hand. In one instance (Louisiana, I think), the militia took the arsenal, gave it back, then took it again, occasioning an inventory each time. Only in cases of garrisoned forts, like Sumter and Pickens, was there any question of possible resistance and violence.... http://ebooks.library.cornell.edu/cg...image;seq=0021

[maillemaker]

Re: How were the federal arsenals seized?

Interesting. Do you know what the state militiamen were armed with when they showed up? Personal arms?

Steve

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: How were the federal arsenals seized?

I doubt they had, or used, many personal weapons. State militias were generally armed by the states with weapons purchased by the states, with large numbers procured from federal stores.

One of the early scandals of the war, for example, was the amount of arms Buchanan's Secretary of War, John Floyd, a former governor of Virginia, had shipped to southern states before resigning and joining PACs. These were generally obsolescent weapons, mostly smoothbore percussion and flintlock conversion, with some rifles, and it was actually his job to clear them out of federal arsenals by sale or transfer to the states. The total came, I think, to something well in excess of 100,000.

Some of the southern "peace commissioners" cooling their heels in Washington City in the days before war broke out were also engaged in buying arms and ammunition, as well as hiring away government employees for the new Confederacy.

That volume of the ORs I linked to has more detail. Here's a summary of Floyd's work from long ago; I'm sure other readers here, like Craig Barry and Kurt Heinrich Schmidt have better sources and much greater knowledge: http://www.americanheritage.com/cont...ry-war-traitor

There was a congressional inquiry into the transfers with little result and the question of Floyd's treason -- as opposed to combined corruption and incapacity -- remains unresolved. He died in 1863 after a brief and unspectacular tour of duty in the rebel army.

The whole question of just how many private firearms Americans historically held is controversial. But I think most observers would agree that the number of military grade weapons in the United States was pretty small compared to the need when wars did break out. That's true for just about all of them up till World War II.