GDG- Re: Confederate supply

[Margaret D. Blough]

Not only did the "greasy mechanics" who remained in the workforce assist the Union war effort, but the ones in uniform did as well, in identifying and remedying problems they came across.  

True, no people who have any degree of democracy can manage to maintain an wartime industrial level indefinitely, but the Union simply had a stronger base to build upon, particularly in the area of railroads. Furthermore, probably due to ideological reasons, the Confederate government was far slower than Lincoln to come to the realization that, in wartime, government control or, at the very least, coordination of certain critical parts of the infrastructure, particularly the railroads was essential.

As you pointed out, the principle that the side with the best logistics usually wins certainly proved true in the Civil War.

Regards,

Margaret

-------------- Original message -------------- 
From: Biggsk at aol.com 

> Esteemed GDG Member Contributes: 
> 
> 
> Margaret writes: 
> 
> >>>And, of course, while the Confederates managed to come to produce quality 
> powder at Augusta, they never did solve their problem with producing 
> reliable and accurate fuses. 
> There is a new book on the massive (two miles long) Augusta Powder Works and 
> its genius George Washington Rains. Their powder quality was second to none 
> and the mills worked a five day, all daylight production schedule once it 
> was fully up and running. The complex covered two miles along the canal and 
> Savannah River, with a group of separate buildings. This was done for 
> explosion protection purposes; instead of one big building that would blow up 
> with an 
> accident, only a small building would do so (and did) and not take out the 
> whole facility. All that remains today is the main chimney. 
> 
> Fuses were indeed a problem. I think it was History Channel that did a 
> program last year about the fuses made in Charleston, SC's arsenal and sent to 
> VA 
> for Lee's army prior to Gettysburg that proved defective in the campaign. 
> 
> 
> The Confederates did a formidable job in overcoming their deficits in 
> manufacturing during the Civil War, but wartime is not the best time to try to 
> acquire this capacity. 
> It is always better to have this capacity before a war, but throughout 
> history, almost no nation has gone to war that ended the war with the same level 
> of industrial capacity and investment. Win or lose, this was always much 
> larger at the war's conclusion. The South had solid industry to base a war 
> machine upon, but it was not until that war and massive Confederate government 
> contracts that the industrial capacity was greatly expanded. If an industrial 
> census could have been taken in 1864 it would have shown a huge growth in the 
> South's capacity and this was entirely due to the war. If this growth had 
> not happened it would have been a very short war! 
> 
> The same thing for the US before World War 2. Our industries began making 
> more war materiel in 1940 for the Lend-Lease thanks to FDR's vision (after 
> taxing the crud out of them prior to this time forcing industrial stagnation) 
> that war was imminent. When war began for the US, the industrial might of 
> America grew to heights which it had never seen before with the commitment to 
> total war manufacturing. Like the South after the Civil War, it was this huge 
> industrial growth that would lead to the greatest prosperity the nation had 
> ever seen 
> 
> >>> There were problems in both general manpower and in skilled craftsmen 
> (I think of the Union victory, in part, as that of the "greasy mechanics" so 
> maligned by antebellum pro-slavery leaders).>>> 
> 
> Yes there were and this was somewhat addressed by a skilled worker's draft 
> exemption, but men were often hauled into the army anyway with needed skills. 
> A nation at total war always has to try and find the balance between men at 
> labor making things for the war and men to fight it. Both sides in the Civil 
> War, but the South in particular, employed huge numbers of women for the 
> first time in American history (sorry Rosie the Riveter!). These women rolled 
> cartridges; sewed uniforms, tents, shoes and flags; made medical supplies and 
> much more, some of it in a home-based cottage industry. In November, 1862, 
> the Richmond QM Depot had over 2000 women in its employ. Atlanta's QM depot 
> had over 3000. etc. With this came massive migration to the cities for work - 
> and this would then create a labor shortage of sorts in the agricultural 
> sector in terms of smaller farms that had very few, or no slaves. 
> 
> Britain in World War 2 had reached the bottom of its manpower barrel by the 
> end of 1942 (thanks largely to massive losses on World War 1 where they lost 
> the equivalent of an entire generation of men) - and by late 1944, they were 
> actually disbanding divisions and sending the men home to save whatever was 
> left. Within this they also had to keep their industrial base going. 
> 
> Your belief in the Union "greasy mechanics" is well-founded, as would be all 
> of our beliefs in the Rosies that helped build over 50,000 Sherman tanks, 
> thousands of fighters and bombers and hundreds of warships and supply ships with 
> which we basically buried Japan and Germany! (Somewhat mysteriously, Germany 
> never did reach full industrial capacity in the war, which actually did 
> increase in spite of Allied strategic bombing.) 
> 
> This coincides with the statement that "amateurs look at war in terms of 
> tactics and strategy while professionals look at war in terms of logistics." 
> The side with the best logistics usually does win. 
> 
> Greg Biggs 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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