Reunion of Virginia Division, A. N. V. Association. 217
a mob, and we did not have the arms to put in the hands of the men who were willing to go forward.
The act of the Confederate Congress of March, 1861, authorizing the President to ask for and accept any number of volunteers not exceeding 100,000, expressly provided that the volunteers should fur- nish their own clothes, and, if mounted, their own horses and equip- ments, and when mustered into the service should be armed by the States from which they came. It was not until August, 1861, that Congress authorized the Secretary of War to provide and furnish clothing for the forces of the Confederacy, nor was such clothing fur- nished until the second year of the war.
It is almost amusing now to recall the struggle it was to obtain the admission of a company, battalion or regiment into the Confederate army in the commencement of the war. The recruiting of the men was but a small part of the business. The most difficult was to fur- nish them with clothing and equipments. Fairs, and theatricals, and subscriptions, and all such devices were resorted to, and then, after having the rolls filled and the clothing provided, such as it was, the chances were that the government would refuse to receive them, because arms could not be procured. At least this was my own experience. I had raised a battalion, and had them actually en- camped and was providing their clothing, when, coming on to Rich- mond, I was informed the government would muster in only those for whom I could obtain arms, and as I could only obtain one hun- dred muskets — and those I almost stole — I had to disband the rest. The men I had in camp, and who were refused as volunteers, were afterwards conscripted.
Still, many more men got to Virginia than could be armed. Gen- eral Whiting telegraphs from Dumfries, November 16, 1861, to Gen- eral Cooper: "What are they sending me unarmed and new regi- ments for ? Don't want them. They will only be in the way. Can't feed them nor use them. I want reinforcements, not recruits."*
But it was one of the most remarkable features of the war that without foundries, and without men skilled in such work, and cut off as we were from the rest of the world by the blockade, without facili- ties of any kind, the South developed her resources and armed her troops. True, General Banks was our chief quartermaster in the early part of 1862, and Pope and Hooker our ordnance officers.
Records War of Rebellion, Volume V, page 961.
