Reply #134: i'm not sure what you think needs explaining.

[Hannah Bell]

i'd also like to know where you get the figures (since the union had a strong weapons manufacture on its home territory).


"During the course of the War Between the States, both the Confederate States Government and the individual Southern States sought to import necessary supplies and material from Britain. These vital stores were delivered by blockade runners. Running the blockade was extremely dangerous, but also extremely profitable. Many blockade runners came in off the coast of Cape Fear, North Carolina, under the protection of Fort Fisher.

The great lack of arms of the CSA was overcome by importation of arms from abroad, mainly England. Around 400,000 arms of various types came from that powerhouse of industrialism of the era.

Britain was officially neutral but there was strong sympathy among segments of the English aristocracy for the Southern cause. The private English small arms makers had no problems with neutrality. They naturally wanted to sell as many arms as possible including to the South.

The Confederate authorities tried to purchase arms in an organized fashion, but communication was so slow that often instructions were obsolete before an agent reached England by ship. Confederate authorities thus tried to do the best they could under circumstances forced upon them.

Two Confederate-financed companies were established in Britain: Sinclair, Hamilton & Co. and Isaac Campbell & Co. The initials "SH over C" and the name "Isaac Campbell & Co". will be found on some arms. The South also established five primary English suppliers.

Among British companies established in the arms trade who acted as purchasers for the Confederate Agents were Bond, Freed & Co. and James, Kerr and Scott & Son. Arms acquired by each of these
suppliers can be determined by a capital letter stamped in the corner of the stock in the front of the butt tang."

http://www.americancivilwar.org.uk/news_whitworth-sharpshooter-rifle_21.htm



With the outbreak of Civil War in America, the new southern Confederacy realized that it could not meet its Army's requirement for modern weapons... The new Confederate government lost no time in dispatching an agent to Europe. The person selected was West Point educated, Massachusetts born, Caleb Huse....In order to facilitate this work, he was provided with a tremendously favorable letter of credit from Fraser, Trenholm & Company of Liverpool, part of the Trenholm banking empire. (This institution's rather colorful president, John Trenholm, of Charleston, South Carolina, was one of the inspirations for Margaret Mitchell's Rhett Butler.)

Huse reached Europe before most Federal arms purchasing agents had even left American shores. There he bought up a huge supply of reasonably modern weapons from several countries. By far his greatest coup though was a Confederate contract with the London Armoury Company. As much as the South wanted to get weapons from Enfield Lock, the English equivalent of Springfield Armory, this was not to be. In order for the British government to supply arms, they would have to give up their neutrality and recognize the Confederate government, which was not about to happen, at least not so early in the war. The Brits could however assist in obtaining a contract with one of their leading suppliers. This contract stipulated the delivery of machine made, parts interchangeable, three band Enfield Rifle Muskets. The parts interchangeable clause was the key. It required the highest quality work. It also allowed for easy repair in the field, especially given that the Confederate Quartermaster's Department would not be returning weapons to England for repairs...

The London Armoury Company was not only a manufactory but also controlled a consortium of small shops. With the Confederate order, almost all of the better quality contractors in London were committed to the southern cause. The Armory had to finish up a British contract and a small order from the State of Massachusetts before starting on the Southern order. By late 1861, London Armoury guns were being shipped to the Confederacy. It is often reported that all L.A.Co. muskets produced after the Huse contract were sent to the Confederacy. This isn't true. The company continued to supply the Crown, but shipped all their excess production to the southern states. Most of their 1863 output was destined to run the blockade. Almost all of the 1864 production went to the South, and even a portion of 1865's...

http://www.civilwarguns.com/enfld11.html.