GDG- Re: Confederate supply

Tue Jun 19 20:00:05 CDT 2007

Actually, James Longstreet's widow also worked in a WW II factory. This is from her listing on Georgia Women of Achievement at http://www.georgiawomen.org/_honorees/longstreeth/index.htm

>>At the age of 80, Helen’s fighting spirit gained national publicity for the effort to employ women in the defense industry when, during World War II, she went to work as a riveter at the Bell Bomber Plant in Marietta. When controversy erupted over unionism, her employers became aware of her age and asked her to quit. Helen refused, stating she had the eyesight of a 20-year-old and was in otherwise perfect health. In 1947, Helen became the first woman to have her portrait placed in the State Capitol and, wanting to go even further into state politics, she ran an unsuccessful but active write-in campaign for governor against Herman Talmadge in 1950.<<

There's wonderful quote from her on the web site:

>>“I’ve been an assembler and riveter for about two years and have never lost a day from work, or been a single minute late. I will quit only when the last battle flag has been furled on land and sea.”– Helen Dortch Longstreet quoted in The Atlanta Journal;
Oct. 12, 1943

<<

Helen Dortch Longstreet died in 1962, one year shy of her 100th birthday.  Think of it. This was a woman who was born when Abraham Lincoln was president of the United States, and she died during John F. Kennedy's administration.

Regards,

Margaret

-------------- Original message -------------- 
From: Laurence Schiller <lds307 at northwestern.edu> 

> Esteemed GDG Member Contributes: 
> 
> 
> My late mother, Roselle, was a real Rosie the riveter - she worked on 
> ventilation shafts and the like on Aircraft carriers in the Portland, 
> OR shipyards in 1943. She told me once that she was working at the 
> top of a ship when she lost her grip on a wrench, whereupon there was 
> a long silence and then a tiny 'clink' at the bottom of the hull. 
> Only 18 at the time she looked with distress at the male foreman who 
> blandly told her - So, go get it - and down she went. Pretty funny. 
> 
> best, 
> 
> Laurie Schiller 
> 
> On Jun 19, 2007, at 12:57 AM, Biggsk at aol.com wrote: 
> 
> > 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 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > ************************************** See what's free at http:// 
> > www.aol.com. 
> > 
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> 
> Dr. Laurence Dana Schiller 
> lds307 at northwestern.edu 
> 
> Maitre d'Armes 
> Head Fencing Coach Department of History 
> Northwestern University 
> Commissioner, Midwest Fencing Conference 
> Midwest VP, US Fencing Coaches' Association 
> Vice-Chair USFA Illinois Division 
> Lds307 at northwestern.edu 
> 847-491-4654 
> FAX 847-467-1406 
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> Student web site: http://groups.northwestern.edu/fencing/ 
> 
> 
> 
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