small arms ammo distributiom

[charliesboatworks]

Does anyone have an authoritative source of info relating to where the small arms ammo of the union arsenals were sent during the war by army? I build repro boxes and a lot of my customers know what they want. Every once in a while I get someone who asks me what arsenal would have provided their particular unit with ammo and I have not been able to find that info. I know in the early days the units could request ammo directly from the arsenals until the Ord. Dept. made them go through their procedures. Any help would be appreciated, thank you.

[reddiamond]

On 17 September 1862, the date of the explosion of the Allegheny Arsenal in Pittsburgh, PA, they were engaged in producing .54 and .71 caliber ammunition.

I believe that these calibers were specifically for the Austrian Lorenz rifle and the Austrian Rifled Musket. However, the .54 caliber ammunition could have also been for the M1841 rifle.

I wish that I could recall the source. It has been a decade since I saw it. Records are in the Archives of the Western PA Historical Society.

Scot Buffington
3rd USV

[huntdaw]

That's a good question. One would think that ammunition produced at a particular arsenal would have been distributed to units in that particular geographical area, even by the ordnance dept., in order to save time and cost in distribution. But that's an assumption on my part. I, too, would be interested to know if there is documentation for that.