The specter of civil war loomed large in November 1860 when the fiery governor of Georgia, Joseph E. Brown, approached a middle-aged lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army with a unique opportunity. Brown hoped to recruit William J. Hardee to serve his home state by taking a trip north to purchase desperately needed arms for the defense of Georgia when the inevitable hostilities began. The governor, like so many other Southerners, was confident that the prospect of profit would trump any concerns about sectional strife in the minds of most Northern arms suppliers. He also knew the pickings would be especially ripe in New York City, the largest and most diverse market for guns, ammunition and other war materiel anywhere in the Western Hemisphere.

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Hardee found himself in an awkward predicament. His state had not yet seceded, and the Confederacy had yet to be formed. He had also served in the U.S. Army for more than 20 years and was one of its best- known officers. He graduated in West Point’s Class of 1838 and was twice brevetted for gallantry during the Mexican War. Much of his fame, however, derived from his Rifle and Light Infantry Tactics manual, a highly respected training regimen for soldiers that would be widely used by both sides during the coming war and eventually be known simply as “Hardee’s Tactics.”

On leave of absence when Brown approached him, Hardee was due to report for service with the crack 1st Cavalry in Texas on February 1, 1861, and had just completed a long tour as commandant of cadets at the U.S. Military Academy. He described his dilemma in a November 24, 1860, letter to an old friend, Paul J. Semmes: “With every disposition to serve the state I felt great embarrassment in receiving a commission which might be regarded as inconsistent with my obligations to the Gen’l Government….Besides, when it became known to the authorities in what capacity I was acting they might with propriety up the business by ordering me forthwith to any fort in the West.”

Hardee, however, informed his friend that he had proposed a reasonable solution to the governor. “If he would appoint you as the Agent of the state,” he wrote to Semmes, “I would with pleasure accompany you to the North and give such aid to the purchase as I might be able.”

Brown seemed delighted with the arrangement but was uncertain whether Semmes, a resident of Columbus, Ga., would accept the post. Primarily a banker and planter, Semmes had 15 years of military experience as captain of the Columbus Guards, a militia unit that routinely showed off its drilling prowess in national competitions. With Hardee’s armament expertise and his own business acumen, Semmes could be counted on to make some sensible deals in New York with the $1 million appropriation the state legislature had just approved for weaponry. Hardee implored Semmes to sign on, telling him, “My dear friend, in these trying times you must make some sacrifices to serve your state, and you could not do it more certainly than by accepting this commission.”

Within a week Semmes had been appointed state purchasing agent, and within two weeks he and Hardee were on their way to New York for a whirlwind shopping spree, carrying a list of needed materiel prepared by Brown himself—along with the governor’s special instructions that the purchases be paid for in 20-year, 6-percent Georgia state bonds. Brown made it clear that one of their top priorities was the purchase of six 8-inch Columbiads and six 18-pounder guns intended “for the defense of Savannah, which is the only point on our seacoast that would be likely to suffer from the enemy’s ships.”

En route to New York the arms acquisition team stopped in Washington, D.C., and met with one of Hardee’s West Point classmates, Major Henry C. Wayne, now on duty with the Quartermaster Department. Wayne told the two that 100 Sibley tents might be available for purchase from the government. Indeed, before they parted, Semmes asked Wayne “to have the accompanying letter conveyed to the Secretary of War.” In it, Semmes made a formal request for “the privilege of being allowed to purchase” the tents “for the use of the militia of the state of Georgia.”

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