Grant's Army gets a gift at the fall of Vicksburg

major bill

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
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Aug 25, 2012
Not only did Grant bag 31,00 prisoners at Vicksburg he also captured 60,000 small arms. These included large numbers of Enfields. Grant allowed all Colonels to discard inferior muskets and replace them with Enfields. The Union Army greatly benefited from the exchange and put the Enfields to good work.
 
It should be noted that not every regiment availed themselves of this largess, courtesy of the CS. Some regiments opted to keep their existing arms. An example is the 4th MN VI, they opted to keep their M1841's. Those that had modern M1861 series arms opted to keep those. One Illinois regiment opted to keep their French Rifle Muskets as they felt them superior to the Enfield's they were offered.
 
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