Powerful images and vivid narrative are combined in a unique catalog of Civil War artifacts, tactical maps and other battle accouterments.

Even before Fort Sumter was fired upon, the Confederate government began organizing a supply line to obtain military equipment from abroad. The operation was run by an unlikely handful of military experts and aristocratic Charleston financiers, whose goal was to import the military supplies the resource-poor South couldn't manufacture. Much of the supplies came from England, a country whose official neutrality masked a widespread sympathy for the South. Working hand-in-hand with Confederate agents, manufacturers and contractors in Liverpool and elsewhere provided vast amounts of military goods which were transported on British ships to ports in Bermuda and Nassau. There, the goods were exchanged for the Southern cotton that was desperately needed to sustain the English milling industry. Profit and patriotism came together to form one of the largest foreign supply operations in history. Despite the blockade and a government whose finances were in disarray, by the end of the war the South obtained some $200 million worth of foreign arms and equipment.

This is a new release of the original 1944 edition.

The Report of the Secretary of War on 10 June 1848 showed that on 30 June 1847 the United States possessed 707, 011 small arms, of which 586, 513 had been made at the Harper's Ferry and Springfield national armories; 118, 113 had been made by private armories and contractors; and only 2365 had been imported. All foreign made arms were classified as fourth-class arms, but within just twenty years, were to become more important than at any time since the First War for Independence.

From iron-clads, submarine torpedoes, and military balloons to pontoon bridges, grenades, and siege artillery, this excellent work describes what material was available to the armies and navies of both sides. Over 500 black-and-white illustrations.

During the American Civil War, the mounted soldiers fighting on both sides of the conflict carried a wide array of weapons, from sabers and lances to carbines, revolvers, and other firearms. Though some sections of the cavalry placed their trust in the sabre, the advent of viable breechloading carbines -- especially repeaters such as the Spencer -- was to transform warfare within little more than a decade of General Lee's final surrender at Appomattox. However, output struggled to keep up with unprecedented demands on manufacturing technology and distribution in areas where communication was difficult and in states whose primary aim was to equip their own men rather than contribute to the arming of Federal or Confederate regiments. In addition, the almost unparalleled losses of men and equipment ensured that almost any firearm, effectual or not, was pressed into service. Consequently, the sheer variety of weaponry carried reflected the mounted soldiers' various roles in different theatres of operation, but also the availability -- or otherwise -- of weapons, notably on the Confederate side. Fully illustrated, this study assesses the effectiveness of the many different weapons arming the Civil War cavalryman and analyses the strengths and weaknesses of the decisions made after 1865 concerning the armament of the US cavalry.