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INFERIOR WEAPONS
Since so many high-ranking officers cared little for black soldiers,
they or subordinate staff members did not hesitate to issue them
malfunctioning or substandard weapons and animals. Such materiel never
would have been issued to white units at this late stage of the war.
The problem transcended geographic and administrative boundaries and
surfaced in each branch of service. Black artillery batteries had
unusable guns or lacked proper equipment several months after entering
the service. Infantry regiments in the USCT received defective rifled
muskets and antiquated smoothbore muskets, which military authorities
never would have asked white soldiers to use in 1864 and 1865. In late
1864, one black regiment occupied front-line works around Petersburg,
and 40 percent of them had weapons that could not fire because of
manufacturing defects. In some black regiments the hodgepodge of muskets
with varying calibers made ammunition supply a nightmare and undoubtedly
cost lives in combat.
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MANY BLACK SOLDIERS HAD TO CONTEND WITH MALFUNCTIONING OR SUBSTANDARD
WEAPONS. (OHIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY)
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