Mike.... According to "The Civil War in the Big Sandy Valley of Kentucky 2nd Edition" by John David Preston, when they organized in Prestonsburg on Oct 2, 1861 more than one thousand men had shown up there to fight for the Confederacy and on the date Confederate leaders wired Jefferson Davis for assistance, requesting arms and officers. As I read it Robert E. Lee offered to have pikes made for the men at Prestonsburg because of a shortage of arms in the Confederacy. I guess by the time the Battle of Middle Creek was fought early 1862 they must have been armed. I have read several places where Union troops would come upon a dead Rebel in the Paintsville area that looked like a mountain man by the way he dressed and his arms. They must have received arms because in the Battle of Ivy Mtn. it reads hey weren't used to shooting down the hills and were overshooting and by knowing most were farmers who hunted should be used to squirrel rifles but not fighting arms. Doug Kretzer