Randy,

Some more information below regarding Confederate uniforms and weapons at Shiloh … from Larry J. Daniels' "Shiloh: The Battle That Changed the Civil War"

The uniforms worn by most of the men were nondescript. Some wore uniforms, some half uniforms, some no uniforms at all. Artilleryman Richard Pugh from New Orleans found that the troops were not as poorly clothed as he had expected and all seemed to have good shoes. Many of them wore a cotton uniform with a butternut hue called "Kentucky jeans." Several of the Gulf Coast outfits, such as the Washington Artillery and Crescent Regiment, donned dark blue coats and trousers. Just prior to the battle, the 2nd Texas Infantry received undyed cotton uniforms, prompting one ungrateful member to comment: "Do these generals expect us to be killed, and want us to wear our shrouds?"

Avengo Zouaves, six companies of the 13th Louisiana from New Orleans, had bright red caps, baggy trousers of the same color, and blue shirts with gold braid.

[Joe Chance, author of 2nd Texas Infantry book, seems to contradict (at least in part) Pugh's observations about good shoes by stating, "On April 3 (1862) … many of the officers and men of the (2nd Texas Infantry) regiment had worn out their shoes in transit to Corinth and were barefooted, but no replacements were available.]

Most of the small arms consisted of a motley collection of squirrel rifles, percussion muskets, flintlocks and shotguns. Only a third of the cavalry possessed any weapons. Fortunately, Johnston had received a few shipments of the highly accurate English-made Enfield rifles.

In another of Larry J. Daniel's books, "Soldiering in the Army of Tennessee," he states, "The Confederates at Shiloh had perhaps 6,500 Enfields." This is out of approximately 40,000 Confederate soldiers present at the battle, meaning that about 16 percent of Confederate soldiers were armed with Enfields at Shiloh. This book contains dozens of photographs of uniformed Confederate soldiers, many of whom served at Shiloh.

Regarding these 40,000 Confederates, while some were experienced, many were not. According to Edward O. Cunningham in his Ph.D. dissertation at LSU in 1966 entitled "Shiloh and the Western Campaign of 1862, "Thousands of (Confederate) soldiers had been in the ranks only a few days, or a few weeks, and they were totally lacking in training. Morale was depressed due to the recent reverses."

An excellent "Map of Shiloh Battlefield" was surveyed and drawn in 1900 by Atwell Thompson for the Shiloh Military Park Commission. Battle lines were drawn by Major D.W. Reed, and show the Union and Confederate positions on the field (down to the regimental level) at various times throughout the battle. The map was published in a book at some point years ago

Mike