Ryan, Unfortunately, I have not had access to any official records of the armament for the CSA cavalry. I have comments from participants and some secondary sources.
Actually, from what I have read, I think that after the Gettysburg campaign the ANV cavalry may have improved their armament. They captured a lot. I have not kept as detailed notes as I should have on my reading, but it seems the CS cavalry captured more US cavalry than vice versa. They got a lot of weapons that way.
Here are raw notes I have made from my research. Sources are included at the end of the entries.
CSA. Breech loading carbines were procured only in limited quantities, never more than enough to arm one, or at most two squadrons in a regiment. The deficiency was made up, generally, by Enfield rifles. Robertson's two North Carolina regiments which joined Stuart in May, 63, were armed with sabres and Enfield rifles. McClellan, The Life and Campaigns of Major-General J.E.B. Stuart p 260, 261.
Fleetwood Hill. Munford arrived with the First, Second, and Third regiments of Virginia cavalry. He utilized three squadrons of sharpshooters from those regiments. McClellan, p. 283
Stevensburg. 2nd SC had at least some Enfields. McClellan, p. 286.
Aldie. 2nd and 3rd VA Cavalry each dismounted a squadron of sharpshooters. McClellan, p. 299
At Upperville The Eighth Illinois charged mounted against the Confederates behind stonewalls. Initially the Eighth fired a volley with their carbines. They then used pistols. The Confederates used their swords. Hard, History of the Eighth Cavalry Regiment Illinois Volunteers, p. 252.
CSA Cavalry arms. The Confederate, instead of arming the entire regiment with rifles or carbines, had sharpshooter companies, thus leaving a part of the regiment with only pistol and carbine (sic, saber?). Until towards the end of 1863, their carbines and rifles were muzzle-loading. By that time they had captured enough breech-loaders to largely arm their reduced numbers with them. Crowninshield, A History of the First Regiment of Massachusetts Cavalry Volunteers, p. 35.
CS Cavalry arms. They were armed with sabres of all sorts…They had usually Colt's revolvers…They had sharpshooter companies in a regiment, often two, while the balance of the companies were armed with pistols and sabres. Some of their regiments had English Enfield carbines, and some were armed with a carbine made in Richmond, like a short Springfield rifle, made to sling; while some had long rifles slung across the shoulders. The carbines were, in 1862, the Smith – a poor weapon- condemned in February, 1863, and replaced by the Sharps, which was the weapon in most general use in the United States cavalry. Crowninshield, p. 295.
CSA Cavalry weapons. The Richmond made breechloader carbine was not accepted by the men as the first ones received in March 1863 had a high percentage burst. Lee asked that muzzle loading carbines be manufactured. Rifles were to be provided to a number of cavalrymen. Few were issued and those that were had been returned or thrown away. They were a major encumbrance for mounted troops and made the men feel they were mounted infantry, not cavalry. Trout, After Gettysburg, p.105, n 28.
Richmond carbines received by four companies of the Third Virginia Cavalry on or about September 26, 1863. Trout, p. 163.
Aldie. The CS sharpshooters behind the stone wall north of the Snickersville Pike were only 16 men of the 2nd Va. Cavalry under a lieutenant. McClellan quoted in Crowninshield, p. 154, 155.
Aldie. Walton's 2nd Va sharpshooters were relieved by a squadron of sharpshooters each from the 2nd and 3rd Va Cavalry. They had a stone wall on their front, a post and rail fence on their right, and another fence on their left. The fence behind them had been removed to allow access for the cavalry. Crowninshiled, p. 155, 156.
Upperville. …Federal dismounted squadrons with their carbines delivered successive volleys, to which the Confederates with their pistols made but an ineffective response. McDonald, A History of the Laurel Brigade, p. 150.
Stuart General Orders Number 25, July 30, 1863.… The pistol should never be used in a charge, excepting when the enemy is beyond an impassable barrier near at hand, or by a man unhorsed in combat… Trout, p 50.
CSA Weapons Shortage. Early August 1863, Lee had 1700 men without weapons. Trout, p. 65.
Gettysburg, 2nd VA Cavalry. Letter from Col. Munford 2nd VA, says Companies C and D were sharpshooters. Ladd, The Bachelder Papers, Vol. III, p. 120
CS cavalry regiments had one squadron armed with carbines to fight dismounted. Coddington , Gettysburg: A Study in Command, p. 681.
Stuart's regiments usually had one company designated at sharpshooters. They were armed with rifles or carbines. Many men only had saber and pistols. When contact was made, they would dismount in a position of advantage from which they could assist their comrades. O'Neill, The Cavalry Battles of Aldie, Middleburg and Upperville, p 40. I have also read that an entire squadron would be so armed and dismounted.
Second and Third Virginia each had one squadron of sharpshooters deployed at Aldie. O'Neill, p. 50.
Robertson's brigade, the 4th and 5th North Carolina, were armed with sabers and Enfield rifles. They totaled about 900 men. It was the first fight for most of them. The extent of their armament with Enfields is unknown. O'Neill, 72, 127.
As Rosser was opposing Buford near Pot House, the absence of Boston's company of sharpshooters hampered Rosser. This would indicate that only Boston's men were armed to fight on foot. O'Neill, p. 111.
Other than Robertson, Stuart's regiments would have had only a couple of companies armed with a combination of carbines, rifles or shotguns. O'Neill, p. 127.
Reference made to sharpshooters of the 11th Virginia. O'Neill, p. 134.
CS cavalry regiments had one squadron armed with carbines to fight dismounted. Coddington, p. 681.
At Gettysburg, the 34th Virginia cavalry Battalion, like much of Jenkins Brigade, was armed with the US 1841 "Mississippi" rifles and some Confederate Richmonds and Enfields, plus revolvers (both .44 and .36 caliber) instead of the traditional cavalry weapons – carbines, pistols, and sabers. Nosworthy, Roll Call to Destiny, p. 172.
huesvans is correct about Fitz Lee's division being in the Valley in '64. These regiments were what had been Fitz Lee's Briagde and Jones' Brigade at Brandy Station.
But there was more. What had been Jenkins' Brigade at Gettysburg became McCausland's Brigade in the Valley.
I have to respectfully disagree with Lee494 that ACW cavalry was primarily scouts and fought dismounted whenever possible. Reconnaissance was extremely important and was probably overall the most important contribution they made. However, there was plenty of combat, particularly once the Army of the Potomac organized a cavalry corps.
Buford's dismounted action at Gettysburg is perhaps the best known cavalry action of the Civil War. But most of the cavalry fights I have read had a fairly even balance of mounted and dismounted action. Custer's Michigan Brigade had two regiments, the 5th and 6th, he thought of as his units to use for dismounted action and the 1st and 7th were his sabre regiments.
Kelly's Ford, Brandy Station, Aldie, Middleburg, Upperville, Hanover, Hunterstown, Gettysburg (East Cavalry Field and Farnsworth's charge), Falling Waters, Buckland Mills, Winchester, Tom's Brook, Cedar Creek, and the retreat to Appomattox, all had plenty of mounted as well as dismounted cavalry action. Some of it was against infantry. There were others, but I got tired of typing the list.
Their dearth of shoulder arms made much of the CS cavalry in 1863 fairly weak dismounted. Pistols are not so red hot for that kind of work when you opponent has a carbine.
Tom
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