- Joined
- Mar 18, 2011
- Location
- Clinton, Mississippi
William F. Scott, adjutant of the 4th Iowa Cavalry, had this to say about the regiment's arms in the spring of 1863:
"It was about this time that carbines were first issued to the regiment. Only forty could be obtained, and they were divided among several companies. They were "Hall" carbines, an inferior gun of short range, taking a paper cartridge; but they were breech-loaders, and their coming was a great interest to the men...The armament of the regiment in general was still very poor. A few men who had Colt's navy revolvers were the envy of their comrades, who had to put up with weapons in which they had no confidence. The clumsy Austrian (infantry) rifles, issued when the regiment was first equipped, were still in the hands of those men who had not had the hardihood or ingenuity to "lose" them. Some had revolvers of the Starr and other bad kinds, many had the single-barrelled holster-pistols, with ramrods, of the pattern in use in the Mexican War, while all had the awkwardly long and very heavy dragoon sabre, as old as the century. Every man saw and what was much worse, felt the inefficiency of the arms."
The Story of A Cavalry Regiment by William F. Scott, pg. 63
"It was about this time that carbines were first issued to the regiment. Only forty could be obtained, and they were divided among several companies. They were "Hall" carbines, an inferior gun of short range, taking a paper cartridge; but they were breech-loaders, and their coming was a great interest to the men...The armament of the regiment in general was still very poor. A few men who had Colt's navy revolvers were the envy of their comrades, who had to put up with weapons in which they had no confidence. The clumsy Austrian (infantry) rifles, issued when the regiment was first equipped, were still in the hands of those men who had not had the hardihood or ingenuity to "lose" them. Some had revolvers of the Starr and other bad kinds, many had the single-barrelled holster-pistols, with ramrods, of the pattern in use in the Mexican War, while all had the awkwardly long and very heavy dragoon sabre, as old as the century. Every man saw and what was much worse, felt the inefficiency of the arms."
The Story of A Cavalry Regiment by William F. Scott, pg. 63