lied in numbers at all adequate to the need
of them. In the advance to Bowlinggreen, more than three hundred
able-bodied men of the Second Kentucky, and an equal, if not greater
number of the Third Kentucky were left in the rear because arms could
not be gotten for them. In November one or two regiments of the Kentucky
brigade were given the Belgian in place of the flint-lock musket, and in
December flint-lock guns, altered to percussion locks, were given the
other regiments of the brigade. Proper accouterments were as scarce as
guns. Cartridge-boxes, knapsacks, canteens, when they could be gotten at
all, were very inferior. By great industry and effort, a considerable
quantity of ammunition had been prepared and worked up into cartridges,
but there was such a scarcity of lead and powder in the South, and such
inferior facilities for the manufacture of the latter, that apprehension
was felt lest, when the supply on hand was exhausted, it could not be
replaced.

There was scarcely a percussion cap to be had (in the early part of the
war) in the department, with the exception of some that were
manufactured by an enterprising citizen of Nashville, and zealous
Confederate, Mr. S.D. Morgan, an uncle of the General. But while so few
of the Confederate soldiers were efficiently armed, almost every man of
them, presuming that the Yankees were to be whipped in rough and tumble
style, had his bowie-knife and revolver. The Arkansas and Texas troops,
especially, carried enormous knives, that might have made a Malay's
blood run cold, but in the end those huge weapons did duty far oftener
as cleavers than as bayonets. The organization of the troops first put
in the field was, of course, to some extent, imperfect. A good deal has
been said about the evils of the system of electing officers, and much
just censure has been passed upon it. It has been claimed that it gives
rise to a laxity of discipline, and a disposition on the part of
officers, who owe their positions to the suffrages of the men they
command, to wink at irregularities and pardon gross neglect of duty.

This is undoubtedly true, in a great measure, and what is stranger, but
equally as true, is the fact that troops which have been longest in the
service, which know best what qualities are necessary to constitute a
good officer, which appreciate perfectly the necessity of having good
officers, not only to their efficiency and success in the field, but to
their well-being