Re: 1st (Fagan's) Arkansas at Lynchburg, VA & Aquia Creek to ShilohPosted by Tom Ezell on July 26, 2001 at 08:20:37: In Reply to: 1st (Fagan's) Arkansas at Lynchburg, VA & Aquia Creek to Shiloh posted by Rich Saathoff on July 25, 2001 at 23:12:19: Rich: Fagan's regiment was at least partially armed with M1822s from the stores seized at the Little Rock Arsenal early in 1861. There's a letter in the O.R.s where Thomas Flournoy is pitching a fit because he's raised a gallant regiment to go serve at the seat of war in Virginia and there's nothing to arm them with but these crappy old surplus muskets (or words to that effect, anyway). Flournoy lost the regimental elections to Fagan shortly afterward. Most of the 1822s offered would have been flintlocks; out of some 9600 weapons seized at the LR Arsenal, only 1300 had percussion locks, most of these being 900 M1855 rifle muskets, 200 or so M1842s, and 50-some-odd M1841s. (There's an inventory of what they found at http://www.geocities.com/capitalguards/arsenal.html.) It's not unreasonable to assume that they turned their noses up at these and hoped to get a better deal in Virginia. There is at least one soldier's diary from the 1st, as well as Asa Morgan's papers in the Arkansas History Commission where I can look to see if there's any other details... Tom These fellows were apparently some of the first to get the new Arkansas commutation uniforms, gray jean frock coats, more-or-less matching pants and kepis. They also had a supply of the state seal belt buckles, as one of the surviving intact buckles has a 1st Arkansas provenance (Capt. Scott's at the Museum of the Confederacy) and several fragmentary buckles have been dug from the 1st Arkansas camps near Fredersicksburg, VA.
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