Weapons of the 3rd Texas Cavalry

The 3rd Texas Regiment was mustered into service in June of 1861 in Dallas, Texas. There were a total of 1,097 men mustered to fight. They went well supplied for war. A train shipment of three-dozen freight-wagons arrived for them from San Antonio. This was part of the US arms stores that had been captured at the surrender of the Federal garrison housed in the Alamo some months before. The train cars full of supplies included 4 six-pound cannons, the caissons, and the mules to pull them. The regiment was now armed with 1,547 pistols, 226 Shotguns, 352 Long arms, 100 assorted carbines and 52 Sharps carbines.

So, one might assume from these numbers that, at least originally, that all the men had a pistol and about half had two. About 1 out of 5 had a shotgun, 3 out of 10 had long arms, 1 out of 10 had carbines, and 1 out of 20 had Sharps. Of course, these numbers quickly changed as guns became discarded and lost and other guns were issued, recovered, and captured along the way.

As the war progressed, the 3rd no doubt continued to acquire a wide variety of weapons from Confederate arsenals, raids on Union supply trains, and good finds picked up from many battlefields. In the modern 3rd, most troopers carry either a Cooke & Brothers carbine or Enfield musketoon, and a favorite pistol or two.

 

Major Nickle demonstrates how to load an Enfield Musketoon during a School Day.

 

See this good article on Civil War Revolvers.

Hackman-Adams site has good information on several Civil War guns.