Gents;
The BEST source for all actions in the War of Northern Aggression is the appropriate Volumes of the OR. These can be found in all state libraries, many college libraries, on-line and even in some case in gamers library – Besides myself, two other folks I regularly game with have the OR in their personal library.
Also, a great supplement for the OR is Dyers "Compendium of the War of the Rebellion" which is a three volume set. One Volume is a complete listing of the Federal Order of Battle by Army – Corps -Division – Brigade that shows, chronologically, the day each regiment joined, where it came from, the day it left, and where it went to. Another has a chronological listing of every known engagement by state. The Third has regimental histories of every Federal unit that fought in the war. This book was republished years ago in a single volume (which I also own). Many of the same libraries that have the OR also have this. Many other have this but not the OR.
So, you can grab the Dyer, look at the listing of engagements in Louisiana for the period you desire, find ALL engagements, decide what you are interested in, get the Federal OB from Dyer for the units engaged, then go to the OR for details from the reports therein.
This information can be supplemented by the generally newer books for each Confederate State that list all units and their histories. Tennessee for sure has published all their unit histories online. You can find others online too. In fact, at this point I believe the ORs are also online – not that I need them as I can get them off my shelves.
Finally, if you want far more detailed information about the weapons in any Federal unit, the Federal Ordnance records are in the National Archives in the form of the "Quarterly Record of Ordnance and Ordnance Stores". Each quarter has three volumes – one each for Infantry (one page per company), Cavalry (three pages per company) and Artillery (eight pages per company).
The units are listed alphabetically by State, numerically by Regiment/Battalion, and then a single line entry for each Company. From this you can identify the type(s) of rifles used by each company and the types of guns used by each artillery battery during each quarter of the war.
Information for Confederate ordnance can often be deduced by accessing the "Records of Confederate Veterans". These are files sorted Alphabetically by State, separated by Branch, and finally numerically by Regiment/Battalion. There records originally on paper, were microfilmed and available in DC Archives for years. It has, in recent times, been put entirely online.
The Regimental listing contain the then available records for each MAN (alphabetically) in the regiment that were NOT placed in master records for units elsewhere after the Federal Government obtained all extant Confederate Records after the surrender.
To use them you need to do your homework. From other books, identify the COMPANY field officers and ORDNANCE SERGEANT for each company in the unit Often company ordnance records can be found in the later's personal records, and requests for ammunition, being signed for by ordnance sergeant and the senior officer can often be found in the records of one of the officers or the Sergeant – or both.
What you then need to know was pistol ammunition was requested in ONE package of six rounds for EACH pistol in the unit (important for Cavalry) and ONE packages of 10 rounds for each rifle of the indicated caliber in the unit.
So, for example, a request in June 1864 from Company A, 7th Virginia Cavalry for 306 .36 caliber and 78 .44 caliber pistol rounds, 240 .52 caliber carbine rounds, 50 .69 rifle rounds, and 140 .58 rifle rounds tells you that, at that instance in time, said company had 51 x .36 caliber revolvers, 13 x .44 caliber revolvers, 24 x .52 caliber carbines, 5 x .69 caliber and 14 x .58 caliber rifles. Which, combined with information on other company's ordnance combined with any any known strength returns from the period can tell you a whole lot about the Regiment.
Good luck with your research :)
Mark E. Horan
completes his initial Union force in 1:72nd scale.
