There are indications that the Confederates had Austrian weapons almost from the beginning of the war.
LTC Broun, who was appointed commander of the Richmond arsenal in 1863, recalled that "With the exception of a few thousand rifles, the [Confederate] soldiers at the beginning of the war were armed with the old smoothbore muskets and with old Austrian and Belgian rifles imported." LTC Mallet wrote that: "In the scramble of the early part of the war to obtain at once arms of some kind, both at home and abroad, a most heterogeneous collection was gathered. There were in the hands of the troops Springfield and Enfield muskets, Mississippi and Maynard rifles, Hall's and Sharp's carbines, and arms of English, German, Austrian and Belgian manufacture, of many different calibers. I had at one time samples of more than twenty patterns of infantry weapons alone."
The first known significant Confederate shipment of European arms – a mix of more than 3,500 Enfield and Austrian arms from Confederate government, private, and state purchases – left Liverpool aboard the British steamer Bermuda. Coaling at Falmouth on 22 August 1861, Bermuda sailed directly to the Confederacy, arriving at Savannah on September 18th. This is the first recorded shipment of Austrian arms, and is well before MAJ Huse's known purchases of Austrian arms began.
In February 1862 the 50th Illinois Infantry occupied Fort Henry after that fort was surrendered to MG Grant. Company B discovered among the captured arms, a lot of new Austrian rifle muskets, which they obtained. This is the first reference to Confederate troops in the field having Muster 1854 rifles, and was well before Huse's known purchases of Austrian arms began.
On 31 May 1862 S. Isaac Campbell and Company wrote to Confederate Secretary of State Benjamin that Huse had been to Vienna, where he had seen 30,000 "very superior rifles, the last Austrian pattern." S. Isaac Campbell had agreed to purchase these arms, and would dispatch them, along with 10,000 Enfield rifles from London. Huse subsequntly claimed that all told he purchased 100,000 Muster 1854 rifles from the Austrian Army, and an analysis of the crate numbers from cargo manifests and Federal Navy captures indicates that this number is probably correct, or at least very close. However, it was some months before the weapons were incrementally run into Bermuda and the Bahamas, and then run incrementally into the Confederacy. A few never left the islands [shipping luxury goods was more important to the Confederate aristocrats than shipping arms], and some were captured by the Federal Navy. Based upon the markings on the shipping containers, other Federal Navy captures were clearly not part of Huse's purchases. Some Confederate units in the field had Austrian arms in quantity before Huse's shipments arrived in the islands and the Confederacy.
It is possible to calculate some of the quantities of Huse's Muster 1854s that were run into Wilmington, and I know how many of Huse's Austrian arms the Federal Navy captured. There is still a significant delta between those totals and Huse's claim of 100,000 purchased. It is also very clear that Austrian arms were coming into the South from other sources well before Huse's purchases. The problem is from whom?, how did the jobbers assemble them?, what models?, and how many? How many made it through?...A whole lot more than anyone has previously thought.
An issue which complicates analysis is Confederate captures from the Federals, and Federal captures from the Confederates.
Regards,
Don Dixon
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