You don ' t play much priest do you . <| sep |> Thanks for this ! Are you able to take a pic of the merch stand ? <| sep |> Those people , without passing judgment on whether I think that ' s good or bad , aren ' t just protesting against immigration . They ' re protesting against politics that they perceive as intransparent , corrupted and disconnected from the normal folks . <| sep |> Those are tots <| sep |> The United States had an extremely small army at the outbreak of the Civil War . In 1860 there were ten regiments of infantry , five mounted units , and something like 48 batteries of Artillery . Many of the units were significantly understrength , all but a few artillery batteries at forts in the North and Southeast were scattered across the Western portion of the continent in small detachments . The soldiers of the regular army were professional , well trained , and well equipped , many were veterans of various lowscale conflicts with various Native Americans . The officers corps was competent but West Point tended to train engineers and surveyors rather than tacticians and strategists . The officers corps was also old , like really old . Such a small army created few opportunities for advancement and young officers mostly left for opportunities in the private sector or bureaucracy . The average age of a Colonel was something like 65 and the four generals were all well older than that . Very few high ranking officers were fit to serve field duty . The officers corps was also about to take a huge hit as more than a quarter would resign to serve with the Confederacy , which for reasons I won ' t get into included many of the most competent officers . The enlisted men were mostly loyal being heavily composed of Northerners and Westerners . There was also many groups of state and local militia , especially in the Northern cities . Being a volunteer was a popular past time in the era . They ranged from competent units with exmilitary leaders and Mexican War veterans and good equipment to completely inept with clueless politicians and businessmen for officers who liked to dress up in gaudy uniforms and parade around , some still used War of 1812 era equipment if they had any at all . Many of these answered the initial call for 75 , 000 volunteers . Weaponry is not my area of expertise so I won ' t say much other than what was used by the regular army were wellmade weapons but not as up to date as the breech loaders both rifles and canons that were coming into fashion in the huge professional armies of Europe as they updated based on lessons learned in the Crimean War . Things did indeed change in a hurry when war became inevitable . Nine new regular army infantry regiments were authorized , these of 18 companies instead of the usual for the USA 10 companies , though competing for recruits with the hundreds of volunteer regiments that would soon follow they never reached anywhere close to their normal complement of soldiers . One new unit of Cavalry followed as well . The scattered detachments of the existing units were ordered to assemble and march east , no small feat when considering how many of their officers were missing having defected and they were a thousand miles or more away . Most artillery units stationed in the forts of the South surrendered and were allowed to return North sans equipment . Several high profile Southerners handed over their entire commands , notably the commander in Texas surrendered everyone in the state , again returning soldiers but keeping their equipment . Arsenals in the south were all seized too and were the primary source of Confederate canons throughout the war . The already devastated by defections officers corps was further reduced by resignations to serve at a higher rank in the new Volunteer units .