Hoyt,

The Tennessee State Armory was loaded with flintlocks at the start of the war. Many of them went to the Tennessee regiments that fought at Mill Springs in January1862 in the cold drizzle of that day - and they had a hard time getting them to fire. Meanwhile, the 15th Mississippi has Jeff David rifles with percussion caps and just blazed away!

Some of these obviously made their way to Fort Donelson as well as the article noted. According to a source that I found some years ago many of the flintlocks in the state armory were last used at New Orleans in 1815 by the Tennessee troops there.

Greg Biggs