Museum of the Confederacy Ctd.

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The Confederacy began to acquire modern weapons either from England by way of blockade runners or by gleaning the dead of thier enemy the Confederate infantry's primary weapon became the Model 1853 .577 Caliber Enfield Rifle as shown:

Not often, but sometimes, hand-to-hand combat became necessary. Early in the War soldiers carried huge knifes for this purpose but soon discarded them since they were hardly used and became a great burden during marches. He did, however, have the socket bayonet which fit his weapon. Note the triangular design of the blade: this causes triangular wounds - wounds which were harder to stitch up by the surgeons of the day and thus more suseptable to infection. Also, the inner surface between each of the edges is curved making it easier to remove from the subject its being used upon.

Samuel Colt designed the Colt Revolving Belt Pistol of Naval Caliber (i.e., .36 cal) between 1847 and 1850-the actual year of introduction. It remained in production until 1873 when revolvers using fixed cartridges came into widespread use. Total production numbers were exceeded only by the Colt Pocket models in concurrent development and numbered some 250,000 domestic units and about 22,000 produced in the Colt London Armory.