>>>I would like suggestions for good sites for researching side arms issued to Confederate troops. Were side arms official issue for officers and non-coms or were side arms issued to all soldiers? Were side arms loaded via muzzle or did fixed ammuniation exist for side arms? What caliber was usually utilized for side arms? Any help will be appreciated. <<<

Officers on both sides were required to purchase and provide their own sidearms (sword, and maybe a revolver or other handgun) from private sources and their own funds. All that an officer received from Jeff Davis or the Confederate government was his commission papers and his salary. The primary sidearm for officers was the foot officers' or staff and field officers' sword (possession and carry of this item was mandatory in most cases), and occasionally they would augment this with a small revolver of some sort for personal protection.

The most common handguns that I have found used by officers were the M1849 Colt pocket revolver (.31 cal) and the M1851 Colt Navy (.36 cal). Being private purchase items, there's room for a host of other models out there, but these are the two most commonly mentioned models in period accounts.

Revolvers were typically loaded from paper cartridges, distributed in packets of six cartridges. Military issue cartridges were typically conical ball; those who loaded from the kits sold with each revolver were typically round ball. Revolvers were loaded by pouring powder into the cylinders, seating a ball on top, and then ramming the ball to seat it on the cylinder. The cylinder was fired using a percussion cap, struck by the weapon's hammer.

Sidearm issue to the enlisted soldier was sporadic. Enlisted soldiers were issued weapons, depending on availability, with an effort to have like models or calibers of weapons in a particular unit. In examining ordnance returns, the general trend is that revolvers are RARE... Look at all the regimental returns from Forrest's cavalry and in the tran-miss. Barely 25% of any cavalry regiment could have been armed with pistols if these returns from 1863 & 1864 are correct. For example, returns from teh 1st Texas Cavalry show in Dec. 1863 "54 muskets, 253 Enfield rifles,53 carbines and musketoons, 51 revolvers, 28 sporting rifles, 100 Mississippi rifles,47 mini-muskets, 16 shotguns, and 13 Harper's Ferry rifles (M1855)". if the "revolvers" mentioned are indeed pistols and not revolving rifles/carbines then that makes 51 pistols to 564 long arms which means less than 10% of the troopers had even a single revolver.

Consider also that the CS cavalry is often likened to mounted infantry and rarely fought on horseback. I am of the opinion, based on what I have seen about combat in the West and Trans-Mississippi that most troopers were armed with only a carbine or more commonly a two-band Enfield rifle (i know alot of Forrest's troops carried two-banders and even the sword-bayonet which that had a derogatory name for that I can't remember. At Bull Run, Mosby wrote in his memoirs that his company of the 1st Virginia was well armed with sabres and new Sharps carbines, but that there were only six pistols issued out to the entire company and that he was lucky to be one of the six to get one (he was friends with his company commander ;-) )

Tom