Like Bob, I tend to believe inspection report figures. First, let's not assume that average Southerners had ready cash to spend on handguns. Even more useful shotguns and "sporting rifles" are not found in great abundance in Alabama county surveys for any sort of weapon. Next, ordnance officers would not requisition ammunition for weapons not carried on their records.

It's also not realistic to assume that every man in the ranks carried some sort of arm. Obviously that was the goal, but the Confederacy was never flush with small arms. Jefferson Davis mentioned lack of arms as his reason not to seek new volunteers in October 1861. Even after Europeans imports, home industry and battlefield captures allowed a substantial increase in size of Confederate armies, some units still remained woefully short of firearms. For instance, Grady McWhinney ("Attack and Die") mentions that the 41st Mississippi attacked Federal positions in the Round Forest at Murfreesboro TN mainly armed with sticks.

Normal arms attrition and battlefield losses reduced available supplies. Also, due to arms shortages, the Army of Northern Virginia required a soldier being furloughed or sent to a hospital to leave his arms and equipment in camp. Experience showed that if a man died or was discharged from service while away, any firearm in his possession was lost to his unit. This policy was probably implemented in the western armies as well.

Sabres were useful in a mounted charge directed against another mounted unit or a disorganized (routed) force on foot. Such opportunities were few and far between, so by 1863 most Southern horsemen had discarded these somewhat dated weapons.