Silent Sam

Well, here at UNC we've got a monument to the members of the university community who fought for the Confederacy during The Late Unpleasantness. Our statue is named "Silent Sam" -- silent because he's sculpted without his cartridge box. He doesn't have any bullets.


Until now.

I did a little online poking, and here's what I churned up and emailed to the UNC Museum staff....

Hello,

I’ve got a little info about Silent Sam… even without his cartridge box, he may not be so silent and unarmed as we’ve thought.

I spent four years here as an undergrad and have since returned for law school. Over the past year or so I’ve developed an interest in old-fashioned, blackpowder firearms.

I was interested in Sam and the rifle he carries, so I posted his picture on an online forum, Muzzleloadingforum.com, with a section on weapons of the Civil War and asked the folks, who know more about this stuff than anybody has since 1865, what they could tell me.

It turns out that Southern troops were sometimes so poorly equipped that they didn’t have cartridge boxes. So they just put their ammunition in their pockets. And even when the troops had access to good equipment, they sometimes went without it so that they could travel lighter and faster. This may not have happened often enough to become the predominant practice, but may have happened often enough to re-arm Sam.

So maybe our Sam is moving far and fast with his ammunition in his pockets.

I’ve got more info if you like, just let me know.

Take Care,

John