Re-equiping Exchanged POWs

[WJC]

When POWs were paroled or exchanged and after convalescent leave returned to their units, they needed new equipment. How, what and where was this done?
For example, I'm assuming that a returning cavalryman would have to be reissued a horse and tack, carbine, pistol, etc. An infantryman would have to be issued a new rifle, etc.
Would these activities take place at a central depot, regional camp or a state militia headquarters? Or by his unit wherever it was located?

 

[Rusk County Avengers]

Interesting question, I would think U.S. exchanged POW's would be re-equipped right off when leaving the Northern camp they were in when exchanged from, or when coming back from the possible furlough. C.S. though would be more complicated, C.S. Cavalry had to provide their own horses, so I imagine they would be given a set time after exchange to get a new horse or go to the infantry, or dismounted cav. units.
One C.S. soldier from my local was captured at Fort DeRussey, and held in Baton Rouge, and later New Orleans till the end of the Red River Campaign, and exchanged. He makes mention of being given a blanket and sent home for a few weeks, his furlough being extended after he took sick, afterwards he mentioned going to Marshall, TX, and then Shreveport, LA before rejoining his unit, (18th Texas Infantry), with other exchanged POW's in that time he doesn't mention being re-equipped till rejoining his unit.

I'm not sure as too the proper answer to the query, but perhaps the one example I provided may be a answer. I look forward to someone with more reading under their belt on the subject, good question I'm interested in the answer to now.

 

[WJC]

I'm not sure as too the proper answer to the query, but perhaps the one example I provided may be a answer.

Thanks for your response.
It may well be that the process varied with each individual or group of individuals. Perhaps our best answers will come from personal recollections.

 

[UCVRelics]

I know in the case of the the exchanged troops here in the parole camp at Demopolis they were rearmed when they could get the arms. Which in early 1864 was a problem. All of this was done in the camp. Some of it came from Selma and Gen Forrest supplied a lot of captured US stuff. Below is a report of some the arms issued to the troops at Demopolis.

Weapons of Moore's Alabama Brigade

Brigadier General John C. Moore's Alabama Brigade

Moore's Brigade of three Alabama infantry regiments, the 37th, 40th,and 42nd, had been captured and paroled at Vicksburg in July, 1863. When they were exchanged and reorganized at Demopolis, Alabama in the late summer, they were re-armed with what weapons were then available, weapons that General Moore described as having

"... been condemned as unfit for service and piled up in an outhouse near the
railroad depot....These arms were of many different calibers. Most of them,
however, had the essential parts--lock, stock and barrel--but were in bad order
...I was assured that this was merely a temporary supply, that it would answer
for drill and guard duty, and that we would be supplied with servicable guns
before being ordered to the field.... but it was not done."

 

[WJC]

Certainly 'catch-as-catch-can'. I was reading recollections of a cavalryman recently who wrote about how pleased he was to get the best horse in a group supplied his unit. A little later he wrote how his unit was marched south, where they received new mounts. That was probably a lot more organized than re-equipping a returning soldier who needed most everything.

 

[UCVRelics]

Here is a transcript of a diary I have of a Missouri artilleryman that was here in Demopolis, concerning their weapons reissue.

Oct. 20th. Our guns are here. Four beautiful ten pound, Napoleon bronze they are the latest, and best make, light therefore will be easily handled in battle, and easy to haul on bad roads. Our brigade boys, are around with their new enfield rifles, the best mussel loading infantry gun in America. The boys know how to use them, and when they have it to do, the result will be deadly.

From this it appears it was the luck of the draw and a GREAT Ordnance officer.

 

[DaveBrt]

From my reading of the CS QM records, it is clear that troops were not sent to the field without being equipped. Exchanged troops would be resupplied from QM depots and Ordnance arsenals before returning to their armies.

There are numerous letters and telegrams showing the re-equipping of the Vicksburg troops. Equipment was sent from several places in the Confederacy and from Wilmington. There are orders for a place to provide 10,000 suits of uniforms and the response that 8,000 set had been shipped that day, 500 more would be sent by the end of the week and the rest by the end of the next week. The Confederate supply system was low on quantity of supplies, but the system was reasonably sophisticated. (Manufacturing was a different question.)